[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 82 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 82

   Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the need to designate 
Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern for engaging in and tolerating 
systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, the 
 need to appoint a Special Envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad region, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 31, 2023

   Mr. Smith of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. Cuellar, and Mr. Hill) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                           on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the need to designate 
Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern for engaging in and tolerating 
systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, the 
 need to appoint a Special Envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad region, 
                        and for other purposes.

Whereas in 2020, the Department of State designated Nigeria a Country of 
        Particular Concern (CPC) pursuant to the International Religious Freedom 
        Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6401 et seq.), finding that it is ``engaging in 
        or tolerating'' ``systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious 
        freedom'';
Whereas, in 2021 and 2022, the Department of State omitted Nigeria from its CPC 
        list;
Whereas, in 2022, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom 
        (USCIRF) recommended that the Department of State redesignate Nigeria as 
        a CPC and found the Department of State's decision to delist Nigeria 
        ``inexplicable'', and a result of ``turning a blind eye'' to that 
        country's ``particularly severe religious freedom violations'';
Whereas USCIRF finds that ``in Nigeria's Middle Belt, nonstate armed groups also 
        conducted attacks on houses of worship, religious ceremonies, and 
        religious leaders, with Christian communities and their churches hit 
        particularly hard'' and that ``the Nigerian Government has often failed 
        to respond sufficiently to violence against religious leaders and 
        congregations'';
Whereas, in January 2023, Open Doors reported in Nigeria there were ``5,014 
        Christians killed in 2022, nearly 90 percent of the total number of 
        Christians killed worldwide . . . [and] almost 90 percent of kidnappings 
        carried out against Christians in 2022'';
Whereas according to some experts, the northern-based Miyetti Allah Cattle 
        Breeders Association, a Fulani herdsmen advocacy group, supports 
        reestablishing a Fulani empire, modeled upon the caliphate in northern 
        Nigeria established by Usman dan Fodio, in the early 19th century;
Whereas Nigeria is an ethnically and religiously diverse Federal State, and 
        traditionally political power has been balanced between Muslims and 
        Christians, Northerners and Southerners, and among Nigeria's 371 
        different ethnic groups;
Whereas President Muhammadu Buhari has favored and promoted fellow Fulani and 
        other northern Muslim ethnic groups, while many of Nigeria's diverse 
        ethnic and religious groups, including Igbo and Yoruba as well as 
        Christians and Shia Muslims, report they are denied equal rights;
Whereas, on July 13, 2021, in testimony at a congressional hearing before the 
        Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission by Bishop Matthew Kukah of Sokoto, 
        representing the Catholic Church in Nigeria, stated that the ``Muslim 
        elite'' ``us[es] religion as a tool for political mobilisation'', and 
        further stated that President Buhari shows a clear preference for 
        appointing ``men and women of his faith'';
Whereas departures from past conventions aimed at achieving ethnic, religious, 
        and geographic balance include the forced replacement of then-Chief 
        Justice of the Supreme Court Walter Onnoghen with a Muslim jurist, and 
        the selection of Muslims as leaders of both houses of the national 
        legislature;
Whereas President Buhari's party, the All Progressives Congress, in a departure 
        from customary practice, nominated two Muslims to its 2023 Presidential 
        ticket, selecting as vice presidential candidate Kashim Shettima, whose 
        past tenure as governor of Borno State was criticized for failing to 
        adequately address jihadi violence perpetrated by Boko Haram;
Whereas the Aid to the Church in Need reports that, since early 2022 alone, 20 
        Nigerian Catholic priests have been kidnapped, 5 of whom were murdered, 
        with many of these attacks occurring on church grounds;
Whereas, on January 11, 2023, Bishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, president of the 
        Nigerian Catholic Bishops' Conference, and four other bishops on the 
        conference's administrative board met with President Buhari to appeal 
        for civil protections in Nigeria, stating, ``[o]ur Church personnel have 
        been frequent victims in terms of kidnapping or outright murder'';
Whereas the Methodist Church reported on May 29, 2022, that eight Fulani 
        militants abducted and tortured its head, Prelate Samuel Kanu-Uche, a 
        chaplain, and Bishop Dennis Mark of Owerri, who were released after 
        paying a $240,000 ransom, while the militants warned, ``We will finish 
        you people and take over this land'', according to Bishop Kanu, who 
        added, ``They claimed that Nigeria belonged to Fulani'';
Whereas imams were also abducted in 2022, according to Nigerian media reports, 
        with the chief imam of Masama-Mudi village, Zamfara, being abducted from 
        his mosque on December 29, 2022, by unknown assailants, and an imam 
        being abducted in Zugu, Zamfara State, in a mosque attack on September 
        2, 2022, reportedly by ``terrorists'';
Whereas in northern and central Nigeria, near-weekly, violent assaults on 
        churches and their congregations are reportedly carried out by 
        designated terror groups, Fulani militants and other nonstate actors, 
        who act with impunity;
Whereas northern Nigeria has seen the destruction of ``over 17,000 churches 
        since 2009'' in attacks by Boko Haram militants, Fulani herdsmen, and 
        others, according to a 2020 Vatican report of its interview of a 
        Nigerian Catholic civil rights expert, and in 2021, the Department of 
        State reported five attacks on mosques by unidentified gunmen, bandits, 
        and Boko Haram;
Whereas, for over a decade, Islamic terror organizations have carried out mass 
        murder, rape, kidnappings, and other atrocities on Nigerians of various 
        ethnic and religious backgrounds, causing unspeakable suffering and 
        displacement, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 
        (UNHCR) reports that this has resulted in over 3 million internally 
        displaced persons (IDPs) in northeastern Nigeria, and 343,000 registered 
        refugee Nigerians in the Lake Chad region;
Whereas terrorist group Boko Haram, whose name means ``Western education is 
        forbidden'', kidnapped over 200 mostly Christian schoolgirls in 2014 in 
        Chibok, Borno State; 100 remain captive and are sexually abused and 
        pressured to convert to Islam, and Leah Sharibu, a Christian, remains 
        captive and enslaved following a terrorist raid of her school, in 
        Dapchi, Yobe State, in 2018;
Whereas the British All Party Parliament Group (APPG) report of 2020 finds that 
        some Fulani herders ``demonstrated a clear intent to target Christians 
        and symbols of Christian identity such as churches'', and, during 
        attacks, shouted ``Allah u Akbar'', ``destroy the infidels'', and ``wipe 
        out the infidels'', and on January 15, 2023, assailants reportedly 
        attacked New Life for All Church in Katsina, shooting and wounding the 
        pastor and kidnapping up to 25 in the congregation, including 5 women 
        and girls;
Whereas, on June 5, 2022, for the first time in southern Nigeria, a church was 
        attacked during a Pentecost Sunday Mass, when terrorists massacred 40 
        worshippers and wounded scores more in a shooting attack on St. Francis 
        Xavier Catholic Church in Owo City, in Ondo State, and none of the 
        suspects have been convicted and sentenced;
Whereas the Department of State mischaracterizes or incompletely characterizes 
        the increasing incidents of large scale violence in Nigeria's northern 
        and central rural regions as ``communal clashes'' between Muslim herders 
        and Christian farmers, solely attributable to competition for scarce 
        natural resources resulting from climate change;
Whereas USCIRF reports that ``Fulani-affiliated armed groups used religious 
        rhetoric while conducting myriad attacks on predominantly Christian 
        villages in Kaduna State'', and that ``[k]idnappers also reportedly 
        deliberately targeted Christians for abduction and execution'';
Whereas USCIRF concludes that the Nigerian Government has ``routinely failed to 
        investigate these attacks [on Christian communities] and prosecute those 
        responsible, demonstrating a problematic level of apathy on the part of 
        state officials'';
Whereas the UNHCR reports that there are over 2.1 million IDPs in northeastern 
        Nigeria, and 304,562 registered refugee Nigerians in the Lake Chad 
        region;
Whereas USCIRF cites Nigeria's Islamic blasphemy laws among the reasons it lists 
        Nigeria as worthy of CPC designation, given that Nigeria is one of only 
        7 countries with criminal blasphemy laws that carry the death penalty, 
        with such laws existing in the 12 majority-Muslim northern Nigerian 
        States;
Whereas, in 2020, Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, a Sufi musician, was convicted of 
        blasphemy after sharing lyrics on WhatsApp and sentenced to death 
        without legal representation in Kano; Muslim clerics, Abdul and Sheikh 
        Abduljabbar Nasiru-Kabara, are now on death row for blasphemy in Kano; 
        and Nigeria's Humanist Association and former Muslim Mubarak Bala 
        received a 24-year sentence for apostasy in 2022; and
Whereas, on May 12, 2022, Deborah Yakubu, a Christian student, was beaten to 
        death by a mob on her school's campus in Sokoto for alleged blasphemy 
        against Islam on WhatsApp, only two suspects were arrested on minor 
        charges, and for criticizing Yakubu's murder, the Sultan of Sokoto and 
        Sokoto's Catholic Bishop Matthew Kukah faced serious death threats from 
        others who acted with impunity: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That--
            (1) the Secretary of State should immediately designate 
        Nigeria a ``country of particular concern'' for engaging in and 
        tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of 
        religious freedom, as mandated by the International Religious 
        Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6401 et seq.); and
            (2) in order to ensure that the Secretary of State receives 
        more complete and accurate reporting and analysis, the 
        President should promptly appoint a person of recognized 
        distinction in the fields of religious freedom and human rights 
        as ``Special Envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region'' with 
        the rank of Ambassador, who reports directly to the Secretary 
        of State and coordinates United States Government efforts to 
        monitor and combat atrocities there.
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