The United States of America decision to remove Nigeria from the list of countries “engaging in violation of religious freedom” goes against “the facts and the reality that most Nigerians know and is a return to the regrettable Obama era of ‘see no evil, hear no evil and say ‘no evil.’”
U.S. based human rights lawyer who heads the Washington-based US-Nigeria Law Group, Emmanuel Ogebe, described the move in a statement on Wednesday as “sacrificing religious minorities on the altar of appeasement,” adding that it “is a travesty of the highest order.”
Mr Ogebe noted that “Secretary Blinken has apparently learnt nothing from his goofed assessment of the Afghanistan implosion even as Nigeria becomes the next frontier of global jihad with the tacit omission and commission of the Nigerian regime.”
Blinken, ahead of his visit to Nigeria on Thursday, announced the removal, just 11 months after the Trump administration placed Nigeria on a religious freedom blacklist.
According to Ogebe, “the USA’s decision not to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern for egregious religious freedom violations goes against the facts and the reality that most Nigerians know and is a return to the regrettable Obama era I had dubbed ‘see no evil, hear no evil and say ‘no evil.’
“Sacrificing religious minorities on the altar of appeasement is a travesty of the highest order given that America itself was born in the quest for religious.
“Secretary Blinken has apparently learnt nothing from his goofed assessment of the Afghanistan implosion even as Nigeria becomes the next frontier of global jihad with the tacit omission and commission of the Nigerian regime.
“Bilken is the new Hilary who refused to recognize Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Ironically we obtained that FTO designation as I testified in the US Congress 8 years ago this week.
“What a sorry repeat of a historic blunder.”