[House Hearing, 119 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
CONFLICT AND PERSECUTION IN NIGERIA: THE
CASE FOR A CPC DESIGNATION
=======================================================================
HEARING
OF THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
March 12, 2025
__________
Serial No. 119-6
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/, http://docs.house.gov,
or http://www.govinfo.gov
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
60-362 PDF WASHINGTON : 2025
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
BRIAN J. MAST, Florida, Chairman
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York,
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey Ranking Member
JOE WILSON, South Carolina BRAD SHERMAN, California
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
DARRELL ISSA, California WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts
TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee AMI BERA, California
MARK E. GREEN, Tennessee JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
ANDY BARR, Kentucky DINA TITUS, Nevada
RONNY JACKSON, Texas TED LIEU, California
YOUNG KIM, California SARA JACOBS, California
MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR, Florida SHEILA CHERFILUS-McCORMICK,
BILL HUIZENGA, Michigan Florida
AUMUA AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, GREG STANTON, Arizona
American Samoa JARED MOSKOWITZ, Florida
WARREN DAVIDSON, Ohio JONATHAN L. JACKSON, Illinois
JAMES R. BAIRD, Indiana SYDNEY KAMLAGER-DOVE, California
THOMAS H. KEAN, JR, New Jersey JIM COSTA, California
MICHAEL LAWLER, New York GABE AMO, Rhode Island
CORY MILLS, Florida KWEISI MFUME, Maryland
KEITH SELF, Texas PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington
RYAN ZINKE, Montana GEORGE LATIMER, New York
JAMES C. MOYLAN, Guam JOHNNY OLSZEWSKI Jr., Maryland
ANNA PAULINA LUNA, Florida JULIE JOHNSON, Texas
JEFFERSON SHREVE, Indiana SARAH McBRIDE, Delaware
SHERI BIGGS, South Carolina BRADLEY SCOTT SCHNEIDER, Illinois
MICHAEL BAUMGARTNER, Washington MADELEINE DEAN, Pennsylvania
RYAN K. MACKENZIE, Pennsylvania
James Langenderfer, Majority Staff Director
Sajit Gandhi, Minority Staff Director
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SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman
MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR, Florida
RONNY JACKSON, Texas SARA JACOBS, California, Ranking
BILL HUIZENGA, Michigan Member
AUMUA AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, SHEILA CHERFILUS-McCORMICK,
American Samoa Florida
JIM BAIRD, Indiana JONATHAN JACKSON, Illinois
PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington
JOHNNY OLSZEWSKI, Maryland
Joe Foltz, Subcommittee Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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REPRESENTATIVES
Page
Opening Statement of Subcommittee Chairman Christopher Smith..... 1
Opening Statement of Subcommittee Ranking Member Sara Jacobs..... 4
Opening Statement of Representative Pramila Jayapal.............. 6
WITNESSES
Statement of Nina Shea, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for
Religious Freedom, Hudson Institute............................ 8
Prepared Statement............................................. 12
Statement of Tony Perkins, Former Chair, U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Current President,
Family Research Council........................................ 19
Prepared Statement............................................. 22
Statement of Bishop Wilfred Anagbe, Bishop of Makurdi Diocese,
Nigeria, Roman Catholic Church................................. 26
Prepared Statement............................................. 31
Statement of Oge Onubogu, Director, Africa Program, The Wilson
Center......................................................... 35
Prepared Statement............................................. 39
APPENDIX
Hearing Notice................................................... 70
Hearing Minutes.................................................. 72
Hearing Attendance............................................... 73
Materials for the Record
Paused/Terminated Nigeria Programs, submitted by Rep. Jacobs..... 74
Case of Sunday Jackson: A Gross Miscarriage of Justice in
Nigeria, submitted by Rep. Smith............................... 84
U.S. Must Acknowledge and Address Religious Persecution in
Nigeria, submitted by Rep. Smith............................... 96
CONFLICT AND PERSECUTION IN NIGERIA: THE
CASE FOR A CPC DESIGNATION
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Wednesday, March 12, 2025
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Africa,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:07 a.m., in
room 2200, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher
Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Smith. The subcommittee will come to order. The purpose
of this hearing is to discuss the deteriorating State of
religious freedom in Nigeria, and the urgent need to
redesignate Nigeria as a country of particular concern pursuant
to the International Religious Freedom Act. I would like to
recognize myself for an opening statement and will yield to my
friend and colleague, Ms. Jacobs, for any opening comments she
might have and members of the subcommittee.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN CHRISTOPHER SMITH
According to the Catholic News Agency and EWTN News, quote,
``Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama is concerned over the seemingly
endless violence against Christians that has claimed at least
58 lives this past weekend and hundreds of others in recent
weeks. It is our prayer, he said, that something definitive
will be done to stop the situation that is inhuman.''
Shockingly, that was more than a dozen years ago and part
of my opening remarks at a hearing that I held on July 10,
2012. One of several hearings, eight in all, on religious
persecution in Nigeria. Since then, things have only gotten
worse.
One year later in 2013, I visited Archbishop Kaigama in
Jos, Nigeria. We visited churches, five of them, that had been
recently firebombed by Boko Haram, and spent hours listening to
survivors tell their stories.
Despite their numbing loss and pain, I was absolutely
amazed at the survivors' faith, very deep faith, their courage,
and their resilience. They were not going to quit, but they
were looking to the government for help, and it was not coming.
I also met with an evangelical believer named Habila Adamu
dragged from his home by Boko Haram terrorists, he was ordered
to renounce his faith. With an AK-47 pressed to his face he was
asked: Are you ready to die as a Christian? With extraordinary
courage, Habila answered: Yes, I am ready to die as a
Christian. He was asked a second time, and he repeated his
answer. His wife was pleading: Please don't kill my husband,
and yet he said: Yes, I am ready to die as a Christian. This
time the terrorists pulled the trigger. A bullet ripped through
Habila's face, he crumpled to the ground, bleeding profusely
left for dead. By some miracle he survived.
I met him in an IDP camp in Jos. I asked him to come to
Washington to tell his story. He did. And at the direction of
the hearing, he said this to our subcommittee, this
subcommittee: I am alive because God wants you to have this
message--knowing Christ is so much deeper than merely knowing
Boko Haram's story of hate and intolerance. He closed his
testimony with this: Do everything you can to end this ruthless
religious persecution, but know Christ first.
To the end, everything he did was to witness, to radiate
his love for God, but he was also calling on us to get involved
and do something.
Since then, however, the wanton violence against Christians
in Nigeria has grown significantly worse.
A couple days ago the Pillar Catholic reported, and I
quote, ``While Christians were receiving ashes last Wednesday
to begin Lent, news broke in Nigeria that a priest had been
brutally murdered by kidnappers, who had stormed his rectory
the night before and kidnapped him.''
``With deep sorrow and righteous indignation, I condemn in
the strongest terms the relentless and tragic wave of
kidnappings--, targeting priests, pastoral agents, and the
faithful,'' Bishop Kundi said in a March 7--just a couple days
ago--press conference in which he expressed outrage over the
kidnapping and the brutal murder of his priests.
According to the sources in the Diocese, Father Sylvester
was bound by his kidnappers. He was shot in the head--and I saw
the picture. It is heartbreaking to look at--shot at close
range with an assault rifle according to the officials of his
Diocese.
The systematic slaughter and abuse of Nigerian believers
must stop. Delay is denial--and a death sentence to so many.
One of our distinguished witnesses today, Bishop Wilfred
Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi, Nigeria, traveled a long
distance to be with us today and will testify. This is from his
testimony: ``Militant Fulani herdsman are terrorists. They
steal and vandalize. They kill and boast about it. They kidnap
and rape. They enjoy total impunity for this from the elected
officials. None of them''--I repeat his quote--``none of them
have been arrested and brought to justice.''
In December 2020, President Trump designated Nigeria as a
country of particular concern only to be reversed without
justification by Secretary Blinken in November 2021.
I know I asked him at hearings. I asked him privately, but
I also asked him at open hearings. Why? I never got a good
answer.
Religious leaders in Nigeria were outraged by the
Secretary's decision. One Nigerian bishop challenged the
Secretary and said: Christian persecution is more intense than
ever. That was Bishop Mamza.
Genocide Watch has called Nigeria ``a killing field of
defenseless Christians.'' Quote, unquote.
Yet-- the government of Nigeria has failed to make progress
against religiously motivated persecution of Christians,
despite religious freedom being enshrined as an essential human
right in their Constitution.
Likewise, Nigeria's legal framework supports pluralism at
both Federal and State levels, but glaring contradictions
exist, especially with laws that criminalize blasphemy--some
even carrying the death penalty.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom,
USCIRF, was quote, ``Appalled that the State Department did not
redesignate Nigeria as a country of particular concern. USCIRF
had recommended--and we have the former Chairman here, Tony
Perkins--had recommended this designation 4 years in a row from
2021 to 2024 and said, quote, there is no justification as to
why the State Department continues to fail to designate Nigeria
as a CPC.
Again, CPC, as you know, carries significant sanctions. A
whole broad array of sanctions that the President and the
Secretary of State are empowered to level on the country that
commits persecution.
When the former Secretary of State Blinken held a joint
press conference with the Nigerian Prime Minister on January
23, 2024, following the Christmas Eve Massacre which targeted
killings by radical Fulani terrorists took the lives of
hundreds of Christians. He did offer his condolences, and I
watched him, and I was glad to see that. But we need to take it
beyond just saying, I feel sorry for you.
These Christian killings reoccurred the following year just
3 three months ago.
Make no mistake, these ongoing attacks are based on
religion. Diverting attention from it tonight--let me just say
parenthetically, I tried for 3 years to get the Obama
administration to designate Boko Haram as an FTO of the Obama
administration a Foreign Terrorist Organization. I held hearing
after hearing, and they wouldn't do it. On the days I was
marking up my legislation to do just that, the State Department
said, oh, we are going to designate them as a FTO. That was for
all the crimes they were committing. Later it was the Chibok
girls. It was all the other atrocities being committed by Boko
Haram. They wouldn't even give them FTO status so we could
start investigating where they get their money, their weapons,
and the like.
Make no mistake, all of these attacks are based on
religion, like I said, and diverting attention from it denies
what we have seen with our own eyes. This is religious
cleansing. It needs to stop and the perpetrators need to be
brought to justice.
Last year the House Foreign Affairs Committee did adopt my
resolution, H.Res. 82, calling on the Biden administration to
redesignate Nigeria as a country of particular concern. It
passed exactly 1 year ago, almost a year ago, in the committee
but it never came to the floor.
While I strongly believe that President Trump will again
designate Nigeria as a CPC and do much more to assist the
persecuted church, including the outreach to Nigerian President
Tinuba. Last night I did reintroduce the resolution. And I hope
we will have a robust debate, and it will get marked up.
Help can't come fast enough. The killing fields are every
day, every single day. And we need to do more and do everything
within our power to try to mitigate it.
Let's not forget horrifying facts: Northern Nigeria--and
this is just Northern Nigeria alone has seen the destruction of
over 18,000 churches since 2009. 18,000 churches. I saw five of
them totally burnt out, and many people killed with car bombs
and the like.
An August 2024 report from the Observatory for Religious
Freedom in Africa found that 55,910 people were killed and
21,000 people were abducted in a context of terror groups in
Nigeria within just 4 years from October 2019 to September
2023.
I would point out that approximately 34,000 are moderate
Muslims that would have been murdered in Islamic attacks. And
we speak out for them as well. I have met with Imams in
Nigeria. And if they speak, they are visited that following
week by one of these radical Islamist groups, and it is not
pretty. They will kill them or do other kinds of mischief.
About 5 million Christians have been displaced and forced
into internally displaced prison camps, IDP camps, within
Nigeria.
The 2023 Watch List released in January by Open Doors this
past January found that 89 percent of Christians--89 percent of
the Christians martyred the world are in one country, Nigeria.
The target of violence starkly highlights the precarious State
of religious freedom in Nigeria.
Again, we are asking the President Tinubu--he has got to
take action. And we are going to--you know, I am hoping to lead
a delegation to Nigeria. We have got to raise these issues, but
it starts at the top.
You know, I have been to Abuja many times. The President
has real power, he can do it, and we are calling on him to do
that.
Let me also say that--and I will put the rest of my
statement into the record--but this hearing we are hoping will
be a catalyst for action by our own government and also by
Congress and, of course, above all, the executive branch. You
know, the new President has a lot to do, and I think he will do
this, and then if necessary impose sanctions.
Where that has happened, there is change. Where it doesn't
happen, that status quo, the killing fields continue.
I would like to yield to Ms. Jacobs for any opening
comments she might have.
OPENING STATEMENT OF RANKING MEMBER SARA JACOBS
Ms. Jacobs. Well, thank you, Chairman Smith, and to all the
witnesses for testifying today on conflict and religious
persecution in Nigeria. I think all of us here know that the
African continent is at a pivotal moment. The continent is the
youngest in the world. And in Nigeria alone 70 percent of the
population if is under 35, and 40 percent is under 15. So it
represents the future generations who will continue to lead and
solve the world's challenges.
Nigeria has a unique position as a bellwether, as Africa's
largest economy, most populous Nation, and a significant actor
in the region and on the world stage.
Meanwhile, Nigeria is facing its own challenges like rising
insecurities, shrinking freedom of expression, and the
struggling economy, which are preventing the country from
experiencing long-term stability and prosperity.
That is why I am glad this subcommittee is convening a
hearing to discuss some of the challenges facing Nigeria. And I
hope we can use this as an opportunity discuss how the United
States can use its is full range of tools to help address
conflict and violence across the country.
Nigeria is facing multiple different security challenges in
various parts of the country, including violent extremist
groups, criminal banditry, farmer/herder conflict, and
religiously motived violence.
Several factors are driving thing these conflicts. Yes,
religion is a factor, but other dynamics like climate change,
population pressures, and governance challenges are important
drivers that need to be addressed as well.
For example, in northeast where Boko Haram and ISIS West
Africa are active, decades of marginalization and oversecurized
responses have led to human rights abuses and instigated and
exacerbated the conflict.
I actually worked on Nigeria when I was at the State
Department, and I have seen that for years governance
challenges like corruption, marginalization, and impunity have
driven violence and conflict.
A history of marginalization and limited access to basic
needs in central and northern Nigeria and among different
ethnic groups have created grievances that school further
violence.
So we must address these fundamental challenges to ensure
stabilization and security and prevent violence in the long-
term.
I am also concerned by the State of freedom of religion or
belief in Nigeria. However, we need to be careful in our
characterization of this complex challenge. Roughly half of the
population of Nigeria is Muslim. While the other half is
Christian. And violations of this freedom impact both groups.
Oversimplistic narratives about the violence perpetuate harmful
stereotypes and motivate tensions and violence based on
religious identity.
On the question of a potential country of particular
concern designated for Nigeria, the Trump administration should
make a determination based on the criteria provided in the
International Religious Freedom Act. But we cannot ignore the
other tools in our toolbox, especially foreign assistance which
has been effective at supporting Nigerians with addressing the
key drivers of conflict and religious freedom violations.
For years, the United States has supported Nigerian
institution's civil society, faith-based leaders, and
researchers to address the conflict violence, and religious
freedom challenges. But, unfortunately, President Trump has
canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in these programs,
leaving the United States less equipped to address the topic of
today's hearing.
Trump canceled all of our peace democracy and governance
activities worth $74 million. These programs helped improve
early response to conflict, bolster the justice system, and
facilitate dialog. He canceled all of our education and
economic growth programs, altogether totaling nearly $170
million. These projects were getting at the root cause of
conflict and violence across the country. And that is not to
mention all of the canceled humanitarian assistance that was
helping those who survived war and conflict.
Trump's aid freeze has closed clinics and left over 2
million Nigerians without access to HIV medication. In total,
President Trump canceled 54 foreign assistance programs just in
Nigeria.
Mr. Chair, I request unanimous consent to submit a document
listing all paused or terminated programs in Nigeria into the
record.
Mr. Smith. Sure.
[Please refer to the Appendix for this information:]
Ms. Jacobs. Thank you. So if we want the United States to
help improve conflict in Nigeria, we can't pull back and
eliminate our toolbox, which is exactly what the Trump
administration is doing.
So I hope that during this hearing we can hear more about
what the United States can actually do to support Nigerians in
a whole of government approach to address conflict and violence
and protect religious freedom. Thank you. I yield back.
Mr. Smith. Thank you. Ms. Jayapal?
OPENING STATEMENT OF PRAMILA JAYAPAL
Ms. Jayapal. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I welcome the
witnesses, and I thank you for your testimony. Nigeria is
Africa's largest economy and most populous country. It is a
critical player in the region, and maintaining a strong U.S.-
Nigeria relationship based on shared values is essential.
Nigeria is a diverse country with hundreds of ethnic and
linguistic groups and has one of the largest populations of
Christians in Africa. Countries split nearly evenly between
Muslims in the north and Christians in the south. In 2023, over
3,500 people were kidnapped, almost 9,000 were killed in
conflict. So the work that must be done includes essential
efforts to bring these diverse communities together and
strengthen governance to end corruption and violence.
It is both logical and necessary for the United States to
fund projects in Nigeria that engage local communities to
create space for interfaith dialog and address the root causes
of violence, such as access to resources, education, and
healthcare with the nuance that they deserve.
These are not trivial, unnecessary projects, this is the
work that has to be done to stabilize a country, to bring
humanitarian assistance to those caught in the midst of
violence and conflict and extremism and bring about peace.
Let me be clear that the mass cancellation of USAID
projects and the dismantling of USAID by the Trump
administration will only worsen this violence and weaken the
institutions needed to combat extremism before it reaches our
borders.
Before the reckless actions of the Trump administration,
the United States was the largest donor to the humanitarian
response in Nigeria, but the administration's attack on foreign
assistance, on diversity initiatives, and so-called woke-ism
are weakening the very tools that we need to address these
complex crises.
I am looking forward to hearing from our witnesses and
discussing more the situation, what the United States can do to
make sure that we remain a strong partner in supporting the
governance of Nigeria. I thank you, and I yield back.
Mr. Smith. Thank you. I would like to welcome our very
distinguished panel and thank them for taking the time to be
here, and traveling a long distance, Bishop. I am looking
forward to your testimony because we need your insights as we
proceed forward.
Let me first begin by introducing Nina Shea, a Senior
Fellow of the Hudson Institute where she directs the Center For
Religious Freedom, an entity she founded back in 1986. Ms. Shea
has been a human rights lawyer for over 30 years who works
extensively for the advancement of individual religious freedom
and other human rights and U.S. foreign policy. She has been a
frequent witness--before the House and Senate-- on a myriad of
countries and issues, especially China and it's egregious human
rights abuses, particularly as it relates to religious freedom.
Beginning in 1999, she was appointed for seven terms by the
U.S. House to serve as a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom. She was appointed as a U.S.
delegate to the U.N.'s main human rights body by both
Republicans and Democrat administrations.
A lawyer by training, she undertakes analysis and strategic
advocacy regarding religious freedom as a component of U.S.
foreign policy.
Her first client before the U.N. was Soviet Nobel Peace
Prize Andrei Sakharov. She was also the principal leader of the
coalition for International Religious Freedom Act in 1998. She
initiated the executive order on advancing religious freedom,
directing the prioritization of religious freedom in U.S.
foreign policy, which was signed by President Trump on June 2,
2020. She co-authored three books on religious persecution,
including silenced: How Apostacy and Blasphemy Codes are
choking freedom worldwide. She writes frequently in the Wall
Street Journal, National Review, and elsewhere.
We will then hear from Tony Perkins who is president of the
Family Research Council. He's also the former chair of the U.S.
Commission on International Religious Freedom. Prior to joining
FRC in August 2003, he served in the Louisiana legislature
where he was a leading pro-life, pro-family voice. During his
tenure, he expanded the organization to reach beyond Washington
and has made a huge network of churches overseas, which really
are speaking up for--not just for faith, but for freedom, and I
appreciate that.
In 2018, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appointed Tony to
the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. In May
2020, he was reappointed, and he served as both chair and vice
chair of that very important commission, which was created by
the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998.
Then we will hear from his Excellency, Bishop Wilfred
Anagbe. Bishop of Makurdi Diocese in Benue State of Nigeria.
Thank you for traveling all this way to be here, Bishop. A very
long route. We deeply appreciate that.
He entered religious life as a Claretian missionary and has
carried out many administrative duties of the order. He was
ordained as a priest on August 6, 1994, and then by Pope
Francis on October 4, 2014, Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi
to be a bishop. His motto is to serve Jesus and the Brethren.
The diocese that he leads is where the worse of the violent
persecution in Nigeria is occurring by Militant Fulani, causing
the highest number of displaced people living in internally
displaced person camps. As a matter of fact, those camps are
the source of daily attacks by the Militant Islamic extremists.
One of the things that I have raised with Nigerian
leaders--and I hope that the U.S. President will raise it
himself is that if Nigerians had an act of some kind, such as
theft, murder, or anything, and you call the police, they don't
show up. That is what is happening throughout Nigeria. The
delay becomes denial, and then there is no investigation, and
nobody is held accountable. It is unbelievable that can exist,
but it does. So thank you Bishop for, again, for bearing
witness to a very ugly truth.
We will then hear from Ms. Onubogu. Onubogu--who is the
African Program Director at the Wilson Center. She is a
governance and democracy professional with nearly two decades
of experience on Africa and U.S.-Africa relations, including
working with African governance, international partners, civil
society, academia, and the private sector.
She most recently was the director of the West Africa
program at the U.S. Institute of Peace where she led the
strategic development and expansion of USIP's portfolio and in
Nigeria and coastal West Africa. In this position, she oversaw
the design and implementation of projects to mitigate violent
conflict, promote inclusion, and strengthen community arts and
security by partnering with African U.S. policymakers, civic
leaders, and organizations.
I would like now to turn the floor over to Ms. Nina Shea,
and thank you--all of your statements in their entirety will be
made a part of the record without objection. Please take the
time that is necessary. We are not in a hurry, we want to hear
from you. So please make sure that you can convey your thoughts
to us.
STATEMENT OF NINA SHEA
Ms. Shea. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, Representative
Jacobs, and members of the subcommittee for prioritizing
conflict and persecution in Nigeria as your very first hearing
of this subcommittee for this session. And, Chairman Smith, you
have been a congressional hero to legions of victims of
persecution around the world, and congratulations on your
leadership on this subcommittee and your chairmanship.
My testimony will focus on the persecution of Christian
farming communities by Militant Fulani Muslim herders. In the
interest of time, I will not address the Islamist terror groups
that are already designated as terrorists and sanctioned by the
U.S. Government. They include Boko Haram and the Islamic State
of West Africa, which attacks Nigerians of all faith
backgrounds.
Nigeria now ranks sixth out of 66 on the just released 2025
Global Terrorism Index. Nigeria is the world's deadliest
country for Christians, according to the respected group Open
Doors. Currently, Militant groups of nomadic Fulani Muslim
herders are reported by the U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom, among others to be the greatest threat to
Nigerian Christians, particularly those that we are now seeing
in the Middle Belt farming communities.
In Benue, Plateau, Kaduna, and other Middle Belt states,
thousands of Christians have been killed, maimed, and raped,
and millions of them have been driven from their lands and are
now homeless due to Fulani attacks. This is the heart of
Nigeria's bread basket. And as their farming families are
slaughtered or forced to flee, the region's suffering is
compounded by growing mass hunger.
Moreover, the targeted indigenous people, the Middle Belt
Christian communities face the Nigerian Government's decision
to tolerate this persecution.
The Federal Government in Abuja remains passive in the
faith of desperate cries for help. The U.N. High Commissioner
for Refugees, reports of Mimi, one of two million IDPs,
internally displaced persons in Benue State. She survived a
Fulani attack 3 years ago, while her family was tending the yam
fields on her farm.
It reports when they looked up, they saw armed men. There
was no time to run. The men raped and killed Mimi's 11-year-old
daughter. Mimi herself was raped, and her husband was killed. A
hunter later found her injured and unconscious and helped her
into the bush. They hid her there for 2 days before it was safe
enough for him to bring her to the camp. There she received
medical treatment and reunited with her two sons, now age 12
and 15.
I lost everything, says Miami. If you go to my village,
everything has been burned down. I cannot farm any longer, and
it is not only me, we all went through these things.
The government allows Fulani violence to continue with
impunity. There is broad concern that this reflects a plan to
forcibly Islamize Nigeria in violation of its secular
Constitution. Last week the Nigerian Catholic Bishop's
Conference released a letter expressing deep concern that some
of the 12 northern states that impose Sharia law ordered
Catholic and other Christian schools closed for 5 weeks and
forced observance of Ramadan. And they cited the Constitution's
guarantee of a secular State.
Over the last generation, a portion of the Fulani nomadic
herder population has become well-armed with automatic weapons
and aggressive in targeting undefended Christians in Nigeria's
Middle Belt farming areas. Various observers on the ground
assert that the Fulani Militants are not attacking to graze
cattle, as some maintain, but rather to drive out the
Christians from their ancestral land and to take control of
land of villages in larger geographic areas.
The UNHCR report above states, quote: Nearly all the 3,790
residents of Ichwa IDP camp and many other camps dotted around
Benue State were smallholder farmers forced here by violent
land grabs.
A Benue Catholic priest told reporters: It is all about
seizing the land and changing the demography of Benue State.
The Fulani terrorists want to seize the fertile lands of Benue,
chase away the people from the land, and occupy the land for
themselves, he said.
A 2023 study by Nigerian scholars on Plateau State found
the great majority of Plateau's indigenous people from non-
Fulani ethnic groups believe that Fulani violence is motivated
by land grabbing, jihad, and Fulanization; compared with
smaller percentages who blame cattle rustling. Cattle rustling
does occur, but Fulani attacks are indiscriminate and devaState
entire Christian villages.
Ignoring citizens' appeal for help, Nigeria's Government
fails to effectively stop these attacks. Take Benue where
Catholic priests and other Christians were recently abducted in
Fulani raids. A priest identified to the press three key areas
along the Benue River, and he names them. It is in my
testimony. Where Fulani terrorists cross from Nasarawa State to
attack overwhelmingly Christian villages in Benue.
The government ignores church pleas to place military posts
near these known hotspots or have naval patrols on the river of
Benue, priests tell me.
Or Kaduna, where on February 26, TruthNigeria reported over
200 Christians are being held hostage, starved, and tortured in
a camp near an Army base in a wooded area off the busy Kaduna-
Abuja expressway. It came to light when 3 months after being
abducted from their homes, eight hostages in dire condition
were released after a ransom payment equivalent to 27,000 U.S.
dollars. They had been chained, whipped, and starved and
referred to as infidels by captives speaking the Fulani's
Fulfulde language. They witnessed others dying from starvation
or shot dead when the randoms didn't come. And as far as we
know, it is still there.
Just last weekend, a Christian from Adamawa State, Sunday
Jackson. Had a death penalty upheld by the high court of
Nigeria in self-defense killing an attacker on his property.
The pontifical Aid to the Church in Need counts scores of
priest kidnappings in Nigeria with over 20 murdered in recent
years. Seven Catholic priests have been kidnapped since
January.
A week ago, Father Sylvester of St. Mary's Church in Kaduna
was kidnapped and slain. Two pastors in Kaduna and Gombe States
with the Evangelical Church of Winning All were murdered this
year already.
Abuja's Archbishop Kaigama strongly criticized the
escalating kidnappings of Catholic priests, citing, quote:
``Poor leadership at all levels, local government, State
government, and Federal Government.''
Some conclude that Abuja's passivity, including failing to
even to collect data on the attacks shows government
complicity. The board chair of the Nigerian private group
International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law
is among them.
The State Department report on international religious
freedom solely gives a neo-Marxian, materialistic theory for
Fulani aggression. It describes the relentless attacks against
Christian farming families on their own farms and violence
against priests and pastors in their church and rectories as
clashes between two rural socio-economic groups fighting over
scarce natural resources a result of climate change. It ignores
the evidence. It overlooks possible radicalization of Fulani
herdsmen who travel across porous borders in the Sahel and
Northeastern Nigeria, regions recognized by the U.S. Government
as terror hotbeds. It shows no concern for their automatic
weapons distributed reportedly by the Miyetti groups, the
cattle breeders, lobbying association members.
It disregards the Nigerian Government's toleration of this
violence by allowing it to continue with impunity.
I therefore urge Congress to call for the State Department
as a first step to designate Nigeria as a country of particular
concern. I am certain that the U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom will soon renew its recommendation of CPC
designation for Nigeria.
Placing Nigeria on the U.S.' short list of the world's most
egregious religious freedom violators is warranted and would be
a foundation for further human rights initiatives by the new
administration here. It is the law. It is standing up for
religious freedom. It is part of American exceptionalism. It is
part of our heritage, our tradition, and our Constitution to
respect the unalienable right of religious freedom. That
concludes my testimony. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Shea follows:]
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Mr. Smith. Ms. Shea, thank you so very much for your
testimony and for your decades of dedication to this important
issue. Mr. Perkins.
STATEMENT OF TONY PERKINS
Mr. Perkins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman--and Chairman Smith,
Ranking Member Jacobs, and members of the subcommittee. First,
let me thank you for your opening comments. It is refreshing to
see we have agreement. We understand that there is a problem,
and now coming to a solution is our challenge. So thank you for
your insight.
I want to thank you for the opportunity to testify this
morning. My name is Tony Perkins. I served as a commissioner on
the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom from
2018 to 2022. And as the chairman said, I served as both chair
and vice chair.
From my time on USCIRF, I can tell you with certainty that
the world is not paying enough attention to the growing
humanitarian disaster in Nigeria. Now despite its strategic
importance as Africa's most populous country, these warning
lights are flashing because of this systematic religious
persecution driven primarily by Islamists, and it is going
unaddressed.
Christians are the primary targets. They are murdered,
kidnapped, raped, and terrorized on almost a daily basis as has
already been discussed. The numbers are staggering, the
brutality is unspeakable, and the silence from global leaders
is deafening.
Let me share just one recent example. On February 9, Fulani
terrorists armed with AK-47s--these are not hunting rifles,
these are rifles designed to kill. I served--probably after
coming out of the Marine Corps, I worked with the State
Department and antiterrorism. I am very familiar with the mode
and operation of terrorists--they stormed a village in Gombe
State. They first seized the 9-year-old boy from the Puma
family and demanded ransom.
They then sought out the Reverend Bala Galadima's home.
They found him. They broke into his home. They demanded money.
He pleaded with them saying that he had none, but he offered
them what he had. He had grain, so he offered them grain. They
refused. They shot him three times, killing him. Sadly, this is
not an isolated incident.
In late January, Boko Haram launched a series of
coordinated attacks on Christian villages in Chibok. The same
region where 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped in 2014. Mr.
Chairman, you will remember that. We discussed it then. In
fact, many of those girls remain captives to this day.
The terrorists set homes and churches ablaze, destroyed
livestock, and demanded that Christians convert or they die.
More than 4,000 believers have been forced to plea for their
lives in recent weeks alone.
As has been mentioned, according to Open Doors, more
Christians are murdered for their faith in Nigeria than any
other country in the world. In 2024 alone, 3,100 Christians
were killed. 2,830 were kidnapped. These are not just numbers.
These are fathers, they are mothers, they are children, they
are families.
The case of Leah Sharibu underscores the horror of this
crisis. Leah was just 14 years old when Boko Haram kidnapped
her and 108 other girls from their school in 2018. The
terrorists eventually released all the girls except Leah. Why?
Because she refused to renounce her Christian faith.
Reports suggest she is still alive and now held as a prize
by her captors as she has been forced to bear children in
captivity.
As a commission on than the U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom, I met with her family multiple
times and worked with the previous administration to track her;
hopefully trying to gain her freedom. We were not successful.
This is what religious persecution in Nigeria looks like.
It is violent, it is brutal, and it is worsening. In 2020, the
Trump administration, based on recommendations from USCIRF--and
I was a part of that leadership team--Nigeria was designated as
a country of particular concern. This was an essential step,
recognizing the Nigerian Government was failing to protect
religious minorities from systematic violence.
Yet in 2021, the Biden administration inextricably removed
Nigeria's CPC designation despite the fact that attacks against
Christians had increased.
Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken later suggested in
a meeting with USCIRF members, which I was present, that these
massacres were caused by climate change. That desperate Fulani
herders were simply looking for pasture land.
Let me be clear, this is not about climate change. It is
about a violent extremist ideology that seeks to eliminate
Christianity from Nigeria's northern and central regions. The
evidence is undeniable. This is systematic religious violence.
The U.S. Government must act, and they must act now.
Nigeria must be redesignated a country of particular concern.
Biden administration's removal of this designation was a
reckless mistake that emboldened the very terrorists who are
slaughtering Christians. The evidence overwhelmingly meets the
legal threshold under the International Religious Freedom Act
of 1998, which requires CPC status for governments that engage
in or tolerate, tolerate severe violations of religious
freedom. That is exactly what Nigeria's government has done. It
has failed to protect all of its citizens from religious
violence.
The U.S. must impose consequences. Under the International
Religious Freedom Act, the President has the authority to take
action against CPC-designated nations, including economic
penalties. The U.S. should apply targeted sanctions against
Nigerian officials who are complicit in religious persecution,
as well as suspend certain trade benefits until concrete
actions are taken to protect all Nigerians.
Religious freedom protection must be tied to U.S.-Nigerian
relations. The administration should make it clear that
Nigeria's treatment of religious minorities will directly
impact diplomatic and economic relations, including trade
agreements and security assistance.
And, finally, the U.S. must reappoint a strong, high-
profile Ambassador for international religious freedom.
During the first Trump administration, this role was used
effectively under the leadership of Ambassador Sam Brown back
to apply global pressure on persecuting nations. The momentum
for that must be regained.
In closing, Mr. Chairman, it is time for the United States
to send an unmistakable message, to draw a red line:--the
slaughter of Christians and other religious minorities in
Nigeria will not be tolerated. If Nigeria continues to allow
terrorists to burn churches, execute pastures, and kidnap
schoolgirls with impunity, there must be consequences.
This is not just about Nigeria, it is about the future of
religious freedom, the stability of Africa, the moral
credibility of the United States. If we fail to act, make no
mistake about it, this crisis will spread. Refugees will flood
into neighboring countries. Terrorists will grow bolder. And
America's silence will embolden jihadists worldwide.
Chairman Smith, members of the committee, thank you for
helping raise awareness of the need to redesignate Nigeria's a
country of particular concern. The world is watching, but more
importantly, the religious persecution, and those who are the
victims of that in Nigeria are watching. And they are waiting
to see if America will stand with them and for them. Thank you,
Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Perkins follows:]
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Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Perkins, for your
testimony and your leadership as well. And your work on the
Religious Freedom Commission was legendary.
We do have Maureen Ferguson here with us today who is a
commissioner on the Religious Freedom Commission. Dominick
Cuozzo whose a pastor from my district who is very involved
with religious freedom issues. Thank you for being here.
And I would like to just point out David Trimball is here
as well from RFI. When I did the bill in 2019, it was a
religious freedom--Frank Wolf. We named it after Frank Wolf.
Got it passed in the Senate. It was dead in the water on the
Senate side, and he did so much to get it passed. And I want to
thank him for that because otherwise it would have just another
House passed bill like we all know. It goes over to the Senate,
and that is the graveyard of legislation. But I want to thank
him for what he did to get through.
I would like to now recognize and again thank him profusely
for traveling here and at great risk. Bishop, the floor is
yours.
STATEMENT OF BISHOP WILFRED ANAGBE
Bishop Anagbe. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the
committee for giving me an opportunity to be heard at a
critical time in my country and, particularly, my State, Benue.
I am Wilfred Anagbe and appear here as the Catholic Bishop
of Makurdi Diocese, the capital of Benue State in Nigeria. I am
the shepherd of one of the four Dioceses, Catholic Dioceses in
Benue. We have others--Anglican, Methodist, and the
Pentecostals.
Benue State has a population of about of 6.1 million
people, 2 million of whom are under my care as the Bishop of
the Diocese. Benue State is about 98 percent Christian with
very few Muslims living in towns.
Nigeria and eventually my diocese and the State of Benue
have become in recent years one of the most dangerous and
insecure places for Christians. Christians and Muslims are
nearly evenly divided among the general large population of
over 200 million persons.
Islamist extremists are fiercely contesting the position,
control, and governing law of the land, especially in the
countries, northern and central regions, the latter of which
where Benue is located.
There are constant ethnic, political, and religious
conflicts over land and the allegiance. Constitutionally, we
are a secular country, but our unity has been fragile.
Political and religious actions and even public speech have
been carefully managed to avoid accusations of religious bias
and political tensions.
Today, the clear influence of Islamic extremists the
traditional social dynamics of tribe, ethnicity, religion, and
the social status in Nigeria. Because those recently are the
beginning of the Ramadan fast, plus those in northern Nigeria
have declared closed schools because of the tensions. As you
can imagine, which other country in the world does that?
Saudi Arabia is not doing it. Afghanistan is not doing it.
Baghdad is not doing it, but then Nigeria is present. What kind
of--Islam practices it. Five, 12 states, and not only Muslims
are living in these places. What happened to the Christian
program or curriculum of the country? But this is what we are
going through every day in Nigeria.
A long-term Islamic agenda to homogenize the population has
been implemented, over several presidencies, through a strategy
to reduce and eventually eliminate the Christian identity of
half of the population. This strategy includes both violent and
nonviolent actions, such as the exclusion of Christians from
positions of power and abduction of church members, the raping
of women, the killing and expulsion of Christians, the
destruction of churches and farmlands of Christian farmers,
followed by the occupation of such lands by the Fulani herders.
And also changing the names of these villages.
They are taking a lot of places so you clearly see an
expansionist approach and Islamic--and then they are making the
people now flee and leave their villages and they conquer it.
The quest to Islamize the land appears high on the agenda
of some of the powerful and influential Muslims in Nigeria.
There is a campaign to take land to spread Islam. And there is
the hemorrhaging of Christian farmers from the central region
of Nigeria, and Benue State Makurdi Diocese, in particular, as
they are forced to abandon fertile land that is used to feed
the Nation, which classify Benue as the fruit basket of the
Nation.
Militant Fulani herdsmen are terrorists destroying society.
They steal and vandalize, they kill and boast about it, they
kidnap and rape, and they enjoy total impunity from the elected
authorities. None them have been arrested and brought to
justice. This is supported by the corrupt system in which we
operate, and the abject poverty among us, which allow the
criminals to easily attract more recruits and prey on more
victims.
Why is this happening? Is it really a religious war? Like
in the past, many jihadists are motivated less by religion than
by spoils of war, and use their religion to impose themselves.
In my Diocese, the spoils consist mainly of fertile, well-
tended land organized around a parish. The jihadists come and
abduct and kill the priests, leaving thousands without support
and basic human services.
And, of course, when despite the people habitats or the
citizens or the people of the land, they take over. And any
attempt to go back and take care of your farms, surely you will
get killed.
The Makurdi Diocese in Benue State has been the epicenter
of the invasion by these herders, who are more like hired guns
of cattle oligarchs, who manipulate religion to rally the
herders to eliminate the Christian population, and cleanse the
land in the name of Islam.
This objective is behind the relentless attacks against
Benue's villages. When we call for help to the police and the
Army, they do not come. At the end of 2024, several villages
were warned by the attackers of the upcoming violence, and the
leaders called the police for defense ahead of time. But they
did not come, and the Christmas massacres, almost customary,
took place killing hundreds in Plateau and Benue with worst
massacre claiming 47 people. The militants also burnt down the
eight Catholic churches of St. Mary's Parish in the Diocese of
Gboko, as well as the parish house, clinics, schools and other
houses.
The Miliant Fulani herdsmen bear on defenseless villagers
without consequence. They follow orders to conquer, kill, and
occupy. They attack even those who have managed to escape into
our IDP camps. Thereby, they have no place to run to.
And it is unfortunate that the police system in Nigeria,
orders have to come from Abul. And such, the one call and said
they have never--and by the time they arrived, this will have
left and the people are now leaving a pool of their blood.
What I have recounted above is happening not only in Benue
State, I believe our experience in Benue is symptomatic is what
is happening elsewhere in large parts of Nigeria. The
experience of a Nigerian person today can be summed up as death
of a church under Islamist extermination.
It is frightening to live there. Apart from the violent
campaigns and attacks against Christian villages, there are no
attempts by the Islamic Council or from Nigeria and various
Islamic groups to import Sharia law on the Christian
populations. Already, 12 states in the north of Nigeria are
under this sectarian religious law and attempts to extend the
same to the south of Nigeria, which they have started.
This month, Governors in the north decided upwardly close
all schools and Christian institutions during the months of
Ramadan, leaving millions of students without learning
opportunities for 5 weeks.
We live in fear because at any point it can be our turn to
be killed. But to remain silent is to die twice. So I have
chosen to speak. I speak on behalf of the millions who are in
the camps.
In Benue State in my Diocese alone, in my Diocese I learned
about nine camps, nine on the 5 of March, which was actually
Wednesday, we visited one of the camps. And many of the my
priests that are religious went to the other camps. This is for
them to begin to ask one if--with the faithful who are there
because we are the voice of the voiceless. We have to talk with
the defenseless. We have to talk about the weak and those who
cannot talk about themselves.
In one of the camps car, the mega camp, there were over
3,000 inmates of that camp. And we chose a record, give it to
us by government.
I speak on behalf of them and those children who have no
husband, who have no farther, and they want their own voices
taken away by the politicians who promise to help them, but
have become the willing tools of the jihadists. Because they
are talking politically correct statements looking for next
elections to come.
I speak on behalf of those whose loved ones have been
killed, but no one has ever provided a word of consultation to
them. I speak on behalf of the thousands of young girls who
have been abducted and raped because no one, not even the media
mentions them anymore.
Foremost, I speak on behalf of my flock who are unable to
worship freely and unable to return to the ancestral farms and
homes because that land has been ruthlessly taken from them by
the armed herdsman.
And we are to say they want to live in peace with the
Natives if we must fund. You have to pay tax to herd the land
which belongs to you. That is slavery to say the least about
it.
As proposed, Nigeria is an African continent. And I tell
you, if there is outbreak of war in Nigeria, no country around
us--Chad, Niger, Ghana, Guinea, Togo--no country can contain
the population that will fill these places. No country can be
able to house over five million refugees. It is not possible
because of that. And if one million refugees run to Chad and
Niger, they will call us to that country. Because there was no
plan to take over there.
So we have to be very careful. Today, I ask you all to use
every means within your mandate to start developing a stronger
and good relationship with Nigeria where you know that when you
speak of human dignity, you are also speaking of the same God-
given right you believe is unalienable. Consider that Nigeria
can be your ally. But it cannot be one where half the
population is in the process of being murderously eliminated.
Work with us, the churches, and other Nigerians of good will.
We are looking for a peaceful and personal society, and our
desperate plight has been set aside U.S. policy for too long to
the cost of thousands of lives.
Concretely, I request and I plead, I ask you to redesignate
Nigeria as a country of political concern. This had both a
practical and diplomatic meaning to signal that you are paying
attention to what happens to us and elsewhere in the world.
Because the policies the government is trying to put in place,
yet so that to return the IDPs, I mean, big camps for them,
relocate them from their homes, it is not doable, and it did
not work. Because the government has ordered the population
that is not able to take of, and there you have millions of
people in the camps, and they want to relocate them to Weha.
And if you do, let's say that you do, how many houses or rooms
will it give me, what, five children, another one has two, and
what are they going to do for a living?
These people previously never begged anybody for food. They
were managing their lives, training their children, and
building their homes. So nobody should have deceive us under
the guise that they want to resort to the IDPs. They have no
jobs. So where you said they want to be in that place.
And, by the way, for the matter still remains, if you said
to them to order camps or big place for them, what happens with
the ancestral lines? Who takes care of them? And this is
whereby I feel the government is complicit on this issue.
Because this terrorist Fulani displace and kill people, and
they occupy the place, and they change names, nomenclatures of
these towns. For what reason.
So we want to let the people go back to their homes and
help for them to rebuild their lives. I implore this august
body to insist on the return and order IDP to the ancestral
lines, and not to relocate them to order constructed camps
elsewhere, which is an invented solution now being posed by the
Benue State government.
And I tell you, Nigerian Government can do that once they
are held accountable. Because I know that Nigeria under the
auspices of ECOMOG was able to reinState consumer government,
consumer and Liberia. And they can do that now. We have the
capacity. It is because their leaders that are not prepared.
And I think that you should look. It is not just, you know, in
a conspiracy of silence, it is aiding, abetting, and supporting
these terrorists to keep doing their work. This is complete.
Thank you very much for dissertation.
[The prepared statement of Bishop Anagbe follows:]
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Mr. Smith. Bishop, thank you very much for your testimony
and, again, for your courage to be here. We know when you go
back you will face risks, our prayers are with you. We will
follow up on your admonitions you have given us today.
I would like to now recognize our final witness, Ms.
Onubogu.
STATEMENT OF OGE ONUBOGU
Ms. Onubogu. Thank you very much. Chairman Smith, Ranking
Member Jacobs, and distinguished committee members, I
appreciate the opportunity to testify before this committee
today. I serve as Director of the Africa at the Wilson Center.
Although the views express here are my own.
In keeping with the nonpartisan policy-focused work at the
Wilson Center, I offer the following comments and
recommendations. Consecutive U.S. administrations have
described the U.S. relationship with Nigeria as among the most
important in Africa. This year marks 26 years of uninterrupted
civilian rule in Nigeria, the longest period of constitutional
governance since the country's independence in October 1960.
Furthermore, as Nigeria serves a second term 1-year
chairmanship of the economic community of West African states
echo us, the country's leaders understandably expect to lead
regional coordination efforts, given Nigeria's size, political
and economic influence, and decisionmaking power within the
block.
As ECOWAS turns 50 this year, good leadership will be
crucial to address the rising threats to regional integration,
security, and economic stability that have beset the subregion
in recent years. However, whether and how Nigeria tackles its
own internal governance and security challenges will set the
pace, not only at home in Nigeria, but also in the broader West
Africa region.
As Nigeria's internal struggles worsen, what is clear is
that the country's instability is rooted in a vital
shortcoming. After 64 years of independence, the country still
struggles to cultivate a national identity rooted in basic
freedoms and dignity for its people.
In Nigeria today, ethnicity, religion, and language, not
nationality remain the benchmarks of personal identity for the
country's highly diverse population.
While Nigeria has weakness--repeated ethnic and religious
clashes over the years, its ethnically and religiously diverse
population is not the problem or the cause of these conflicts.
The problem, however, is that ethnicity and religion in Nigeria
have become instrumental markers that are used to mobilize and
successfully acquire power, resources, and political dominance.
It is important to understand the nature of violence in
Nigeria and its causes, which extend beyond the religious or
ethnic overtones that appear to motivate that animosity.
I grew up in Jos Plateau State in Nigeria's Middle Belt
region. I visit Jos regularly, including in December, 2024,
just a few days before the Christmas weekend attacks that
killed and displaced hundreds.
Ms. Onubogu. These types of attacks have plagued local
communities in Plateau State for more than 20 years. Having
grown up in the Middle Belt region, I am deeply aware of the
compounding impacts of these protracted conflicts on once-
vibrant communities.
Whether labeled as banditry or terrorism or communal
clashes or ethno-religious conflict, at the root of this
violence is a failure of governance to meet the population's
most basic needs--not only livelihoods, education, and
healthcare, but also their need for perpetrators to be held
legitimately accountable.
Elections and political appointments are two important
areas where the interplay between religion and politics is most
clearly demonstrated in Nigeria. Nigerian political leaders
romanticize Nigeria's unity but do little to cultivate it. On
the contrary, they often stoke ethnic and religious tensions in
election campaigns, seemingly to distract from their failure to
deliver for the people they are supposed to serve.
The divisive political climate of the 2023 elections
illustrated this tendency. Furthermore, off-cycle elections
conducted in 2024 also exposed the fragility of Nigeria's
electoral process, as some political actors openly intimidated
election officials and violently disrupted elections,
suspending by-elections in Kano, Akwa Ibom, and Enugu States.
Certainly, recent data, as that from the nondenominational
global network Open Doors, appears to indicate that violence
against Christians, who make up 46 percent of the population,
has been unaddressed by the previous Buhari administration, and
no tangible progress has been made under the current Tinubu
administration.
But we also know that violence overall in Nigeria has
increased over time. The National Human Rights Commission of
Nigeria reported that complaints of human rights rose by 25
percent in February alone.
The Nigerian Social Cohesion Survey conducted in 2022 also
found that an overwhelming majority of Nigerians--96 percent,
to be precise--consider human rights abuses and violations to
be a problem in the country. This indicates not only that
violence and rights abuses afflict many groups but also that
Nigerians understand and respect the concept of human rights.
Now let me offer some recommendations. A few
recommendations to the United States:
It is important to engage deeply and broadly with
communities across Nigeria to better understand the nuances
driving insecurity in the country. While it is never wise to
dismiss religion as a cause of conflict, it is also
unproductive to label a conflict as solely driven by religion
when there are so many other factors at play. The root causes
of Nigeria's conflicts and insecurity are deeper and more
complex than generally discussed.
Second, develop a holistic and long-term vision for U.S.
engagement with Nigeria on issues of governance and security.
The U.S.-Nigeria Binational Commission, formed in 2010, already
provides the framework that supports country-to-country
discussions on issues of security and governance.
After 15 years, it is time to take stock. Discussions in
the Commission should take a fresh look that emphasizes
security partnership sustained over the long term, seeking
areas where cooperation is still possible and efforts that are
most promising for real change, such as local and nongovernment
initiatives.
Third, work more with Nigeria's states and its growing city
centers. The U.S. Government should decentralize its engagement
with Nigeria by strengthening its dialog with and support to
receptive government and civic leaders at the State and local
level.
Next, support democratic actors that are advancing
inclusive peace processes and conflict resolution. Civic and
religious leaders in Nigeria can serve as important bridges
between communities and government, especially in communities
where the government lacks credibility.
Partner with the Nigerian Government to make accountability
central to the response to conflict and persecution. Support
the judiciary to uphold the rule of law, and coordinate
intelligence-sharing with institutions of government that are
working to track financial transactions related to suspected
terrorist activity, including terrorist funding.
Next, we should rethink U.S. and international policies
that lead to knee-jerk responses to crisis. Reactive, quick-win
actions that may seem beneficial to Nigerians could have larger
and far-reaching negative impacts.
And, finally, revive the U.S. Congressional Bipartisan
Caucus on Nigeria, which served as a space to prioritize
discussions on issues of U.S.-Nigeria relations. An active
congressional bipartisan caucus will signify the importance of
U.S.-Nigeria relations and create a forum to proactively
consider wide perspectives on different issues of concern to
better inform legislative response.
And, now, recommendations to the Nigerian Government:
Coordinate Federal and State action in messaging. Effective
coordination so desperately needed among Nigeria's Federal and
State governments is too often undermined by finger-pointing.
That must stop.
Since assuming office, President Tinubu has called for
better synergy and cooperation among security agencies to
address insecurity in the country. However, concrete steps must
be taken to move this aspiration to reality.
Nigeria also needs to get serious about police reform. In
December 2004, the Governors of Nigeria's 36 states unanimously
endorsed the establishment of State police as a measure to
combat the Nation's rising insecurity. While this is a
significant shift in policing in Nigeria, it is still unclear
how this will be operationalized.
Police reform should not be about State policing only, but
it should consist of a broader conversation that is rooted in
the country's present realities and applies lessons learned
from past efforts.
Third, Nigeria needs to make accountability of perpetrators
and of the authority central to its response. Nigerians need
justice. Criminality in the Middle Belt and elsewhere in other
parts of the country has grown, in part because of impunity.
The trends underlining the violence that we see in
different parts of the country can be traced and can be
anticipated if the appropriate government security agencies
have effective early warning and rapid-response mechanisms.
Nigeria should also start laying the groundwork for
peaceful elections in 2027. This year, 2025, will be a critical
year for elections in Nigeria, as the current chairperson of
Nigeria's election commission completes his second and final
term in December 2025.
Finally, Nigeria needs to appoint an ambassador to the
United States. It has been 18 months since Nigeria recalled its
Ambassador from Washington and other diplomatic missions
worldwide. Nigeria needs senior diplomatic representation to
deepen its engagement with the U.S. across all spectrums,
including in discussions like these, and to support and engage
with Nigeria's dynamic and largely successful diaspora
communities across the United States.
In conclusion, clearly a fresh approach is needed, both for
Nigeria and for the U.S. U.S. and internal policies on Nigeria
must include a better understanding of the country's
complexities. Stepping back to honestly reanalyze how
governance in Nigeria really works--and how it does not work--
is crucial to addressing the question of conflict and
persecution in Nigeria.
Thank you for inviting me to testify, and I look forward to
your questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Onubogu follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Smith. Thank you so very much for your testimony.
And I think your point about failure of governance couldn't
be stronger stated. When the Bishop said a moment ago that when
they make calls to law enforcement to respond, they don't
come--I have heard that over and over and over again,
particularly as it relates to the Fulani.
But I remember, in the early days of Boko Haram, I had
Assistant Secretary Johnnie Carson testify at several of my
hearings, Africa Assistant Secretary, and he just said Boko
Haram was a group of bandits, they had no thread of wanting a
caliphate, which we found out later they did; that they were
not promoting aggressive Islamist views, which they were.
And I did indicate in my opening comments how we tried to
get Boko Haram designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
And they had even blown up a building that killed some U.N.
types, including an American, in Abuja. And all of that was
just overlooked.
What Johnnie Carson said here in this room at that hearing
was that all Boko Haram was trying to do was to embarrass
Goodluck Jonathan, then the President. I said, are you kidding
me? You know, embarrass him?
How about they--I mean, when they took the Chibok girls--
and I met with several of the Chibok girls that escaped. There
were few that escaped, and I met with many of their parents. It
had everything to do with turning them into slaves and abusing
them horribly and forcing them to change from being
Christians--some were Muslim to begin with, but not many--to,
you know, a coercive conversion on their part.
And that woke up some people here but not enough.
So, you know, your point about failure to govern couldn't--
and I brought it up with Buhari many times as well and got
nowhere.
There was an effort to have cooperation on the security
side. There was a fusion center, as you might know--I visited
it--where our military wanted to work side-by-side with there
military to especially use the best and latest means of
combating Boko Haram at the time, and it went nowhere.
The Leahy Amendment was invoked by our side, so I had a
hearing on that, found out that half of the people that we
could have trained would have easily passed muster under the
Leahy Amendment--in other words, they didn't have human-rights
violations attributed to them--but it never happened. It was a
great idea, but it went nowhere.
So you are right, we need to revisit how do we work
together on security.
And, again, if I called my local police department in
Manchester, New Jersey, because a crime had been committed and
they don't show up, that is a gross neglect and a gross failure
to govern. That is what, as we know, Christians are facing each
and every day.
So I thank you for that. I thank all of you.
Just a couple of quick points, and I will yield to my
distinguished colleagues.
In 2016, I wrote the follow-up to Frank Wolf's famous,
historic law called the International Religious Freedom Act,
and we put a couple of things in there: ``Entities of
Particular Concern,'' Boko Haram is on that list, but I do
think the Fulani need to be on that list as well. That is
something we should ask the administration to do.
We had a ``Designated Persons List'' for individuals
committing egregious violations of human rights--Back in 2004,
I was the author of the Belarus Democracy Act. That
legislation, which was the first of its kind led to the
Magnitsky Act. We put that into the NDAA to get it passed. It
said we targeted individuals, not just the whole country but
individuals, who are particularly severe in what they do.These
individuals were denied and have no ability to engage
economically with the United States in any way, shape, or form.
My hope is that we--and I invite you and I invite anyone
who has pertinent information of any particular persons that
need to be on that list so that we can individually sanction
them. We have done it in other countries all over the world.
Started with Belarus, with Lukashenko, but others have been
targeted as well. In DR Congo, a lot of Kabila's people were
targeted. It is a very effective mechanism to isolate them
while we are working on the country itself. So I invite you,
any individuals that you think should be on there.
I do think that the Fulani ought to be an FTO as well. Not
only should they be designated an Entity of Particular Concern,
but they need to go onto the Foreign Terrorist Organization
list because of what they are doing.
Let me also get your thoughts on this and remind everybody
that ``Country of Particular Concern'' requires an annual
designation of countries where governments engage in or
tolerate--that is the language of the statute, ``or
tolerate''--particularly severe violations of religious freedom
during the reporting year.
During the Obama years--again, I had hearings on this
again--they wouldn't even name countries. I asked him, where
are the countries? You know, it says in the statute you
``shall''; it doesn't say you ``may.'' And we didn't even get a
country or a list of those countries.
So we need to up our game, if you will, on promoting
religious freedom everywhere. And Nigeria, in my opinion, it
just stands out as an area that we need to do so much more on.
So if you want to speak to any of those thoughts about
Entities of Particular Concern. My hope is that the President--
and I think, Mr. Perkins, you put it well--that a very robust
effort will be coming soon with regards to religious freedom
everywhere, including in Nigeria, I mean, the suffering
brethren of all kinds.
And I met with--every time I go, I meet with imams. If they
speak out, they have got a mark on their back, and they will be
killed by the weekend. And I am not exaggerating. I heard it
from so many, I began to say, ``OK, they are not going to speak
out.''
And I remember one particular imam telling me how ``Boko
Haram, they are not us.'' And I said, ``I know that.'' You
know, they are a radicalized group of people who kill and maim
and slaughter and rape in order to get their way.
So law enforcement, if any of you want to speak to that. It
seems to me that is so basic. If you don't have a government
that responds to a request--if you had a fire going, would the
firefighters show up? I hope so. Well, law enforcement needs to
show up.
And when they start prosecuting people, you will see a
different situation in Nigeria, I believe.
Ms. Shea. Well, if I may, Mr. Chairman, yes, I would like
to respond to that.
I think you are right, and everyone on this witness table
has said the same thing, that there has been this failure to
hold accountable the perpetrators of these atrocities.
And it is actually worse than someone robbing your home. It
is a systematic, coordinated attack that cleanses entire
villages and farming areas of the population who have a certain
religious profile that they don't like, I guess. But we don't
know, we really don't know, what the motives or intents are,
because the government doesn't investigate or bring to trial
anyone for these horrible attacks.
And as the Bishop pointed out--and he is incredibly
courageous to come forward today. As he said, he doesn't want
to die twice. I hope not even once.
But once this process happens of clearing an entire
village, burning the property and taking control of it, the
IDPs are then sent to temporary camps, where the churches help
or others help and feed them and sustain them, until they are
permanently relocated somewhere else--maybe a bigger camp,
maybe to other parts of the country, maybe outside the country.
This is not making any sense. It is not sustainable. And I
think there has to be personal pressure, because the government
has no political will. So no amount of programs are going to
help this unless there is--help resolve this situation if there
is no political will to do anything.
And that is what we are seeing over and over, year after
year, 20 years of the Fulani herdsmen armed to their teeth with
AKs. According to scholars who have written about this,
Nigerians, these guns are given to them, these weapons are
given to them by the breeders, the cattle breeders, the cattle
oligarchs, as the Bishop called them. And they have to be held
accountable.
Also, the top people in the government have to be held
accountable on a personal level. They want their visas; they
want their bank accounts in the United States. I think this
would have teeth. And----
Mr. Smith. It is already law. It is already law. We just
need to----
Ms. Shea. It is already law.
And we should be getting the names of the criminal justice
people who are failing who are in the leadership of the
government.
And you are right, Nigeria is America's most important
partner in Africa, and it is a land of the future, and there is
a lot of promise there. And we need to help them get control of
the out-of-control terror and particularly this Fulani problem,
whatever you want to call it, terror or criminality.
Mr. Smith. Ms. Jacobs?
Ms. Jacobs. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Onubogu, I want to start with you. I really appreciated
what you said in your testimony about the need to understand
the drivers of violence in Nigeria, which extend beyond
religious and ethnic overtones. So I want to start off with a
conversation talking about what these drivers are.
What do you see as the primary drivers of conflict and
violence across the Middle Belt? And what are the political and
economic, social, or historical factors that exacerbate the
conflict in that region?
Ms. Onubogu. Thank you, Representative Jacobs.
And, if I may, before I respond to that, just to touch on
the point about police reform, as was mentioned, Nigeria is
significantly underpoliced. And as I had mentioned in my
remarks, there have been attempts at police reform. At least we
have actually seen three, in 2006, in 2009, and 2012.
So the government has been engaging in trying to address
the system with the way Nigeria is structured, Nigeria's
security architecture, where the police is centered in the
center of the country. As I mentioned, in December of last
year, Nigerian State Governors have started looking at
decentralizing the police.
A lot needs to be done to actually operationalize that,
since these are conversations that have been happening over 20
years. So actually trying to move that aspiration to reality is
something, as I had mentioned in recommendations, that the U.S.
could support the administration in looking at.
In terms of the questions on the drivers of violence, as I
had mentioned in my remarks, where Nigeria's identity--the
government has failed on really crafting an understanding of
identity, one that is based on basic freedoms and dignity for
the people. People still identify based on their ethnicity,
religion, and language.
And many politicians, political actors, across the board,
across the Middle Belt and in different parts of the country,
too, as well, have tapped into this and used this to instigate
violence or instigate conflict, mostly for the purposes of
acquiring power, acquiring resources, and acquiring position.
So this is at the root of Nigeria's--is at the root of the
conflict that we see.
Taking it back to the question of governance and really
understanding the history of violence and understanding the
history of political participation in Nigeria is key and
important if we are to really tackle these conflicts. If not,
we end up only--the conflict that we see today is only a
symptom of much larger problems.
Ms. Jacobs. Thank you.
Which types of U.S. Government investments have been most
effective in addressing some of these drivers of conflict?
Ms. Onubogu. In my opinion, programs that have been most
effective are programs that really work in partnership with the
government, in partnership with communities, programs that are
able to inform and shape--programs that are able to inform and
design interventions that are able to effectively tackle
concerns that are identified by communities.
It is important that communities are part and parcel of
identifying the problem. And, again, in terms of programs that
we have also seen that have been successful, in complex
environments like Nigeria, involving nuanced views, involving
diverse voices in these conversations have often led to
progress.
Ms. Jacobs. Thank you.
Mr. Perkins, I have a question for you. Last year, the
State Department hired a seasoned expert to conduct an analysis
of conflict and religious-freedom dynamics in northern Nigeria.
This expert was originally recommended by USCIRF Commissioner
Frank Wolf to gain a better understanding of these issues and
advise the Department on the exact topic of this hearing today.
Unfortunately, due to the Trump administration's aid freeze
and cuts, this project is paused.
Can you discuss the benefits of this kind of research
project, what information it would help provide the U.S.
Government, and how this research could help us effectively
address religious-freedom challenges in Nigeria?
Mr. Perkins. Certainly.
I do think there are valuable projects in which the Federal
Government, State Department, does fund. But I think we have an
overwhelming amount of evidence to suggest that we have a
problem, and I think everyone agrees, that whether religion--
and I agree with the comments that have been made by everybody
on both this panel as well as the members of the subcommittee.
This is a complex issue.
But to deny the fact that--and I am not suggesting anyone
is denying this. But to say that religion is not a part of the
mix would be to deny reality, because it is. It has been
weaponized by some, as testimony has given light to today. So
we have the evidence there.
I think that by moving forward with the designation we get
the attention of the country of Nigeria and then, hopefully,
the will of the Nigerian Government to partner in legitimate
programs--because there are many. You are absolutely correct;
there are many legitimate programs that can help advance
democracy and security in Nigeria. I worked with the State
Department on part of those in developing the security of the
local law enforcement. So there are legitimate ones.
But I think it--I agree with the administration in pausing
until we do an analysis of what is working and what is not.
Ms. Jacobs. OK.
Ms. Onubogu, do you think additional research on the
conflict dynamics in northern Nigeria would be beneficial for
the U.S. Government's response?
Ms. Onubogu. Yes, I do.
Ms. Jacobs. Thank you. So do I. And I implore the Trump
administration to allow this project to continue and make sure
our embassy is adequately staffed.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much.
I would like to recognize Mr. Huizenga.
Mr. Huizenga. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I appreciate you
holding this very important hearing.
This is actually something that we had done previously, or
you had led, and good to see some of you folks again here.
Specifically, I have a quick question at the front end of
both the Bishop and Ms. Onubugo--bogu, correct?
Ms. Onubogu. Yes.
Mr. Huizenga. Has Nigeria always been this violent?
Bishop Anagbe. Yes. Not this level of violence. Because
this is almost like an open war declared on some parts of
Nigeria.
And then it is multidimensional, from Boko Haram to
bandits. Boko Haram is the northeast; the bandits are in the
northwest. And then the Fulani terrorists are in the north-
central, which is Middle Belt.
Mr. Huizenga. Yes.
Bishop Anagbe. And these attacks are simultaneously carried
out in places where
[inaudible] of violence is being experienced. And the
worsening part of it, the government is very, very inactive.
Mr. Huizenga. Ms. Onubogu, yes, you were talking about the
history of violence. Has it always been as violent as we are
seeing today?
Ms. Onubogu. Yes, as I say, it is important to understand
the nature of violence. As I have mentioned in my remarks, this
year basically marks 26 years of uninterrupted civilian rule,
which means there was a transition in 1999 from military rule.
Going back all the way to Nigeria's independence, every
republic, dating back to the first republic, we have always
seen some forms of violence that have often been shaped around
identity lines, religion, or background. And as time has gone
on, it has often taken on a different shape or form of its own.
So it is important to understand that the violence is
interconnected.
Mr. Huizenga. Yes.
Ms. Onubogu. Things may look different, but they are
connected by the same underlying issues.
Mr. Huizenga. What I'm trying to understand, though, is,
has Nigeria always been this violent, and maybe a slightly
different form, in your opinion?
Ms. Onubogu. There has always been an element of violence.
Mr. Huizenga. Sure. There has been an element.
Well, you are from Jos. And I am familiar with Jos. I have
had family members who have traveled to Jos and Lagos, because
the church denomination I happen to be a member of I am sure
you are familiar with, which is the Christian Reform Church.
The Christian Reform Church, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
actually has more members in Nigeria than they do in all of
North America. It is basically an African church headquartered
in Grand Rapids, Michigan, of all things.
I will tell you that the people that I have talked to who
have been either on the mission field there or who have lived
there or who have been a part of that, they believe that there
has been an up-tick in violence and that the country wasn't--it
may have been percolating in a different way, but there was not
this outright violence.
Ms. Onubogu. Uh-huh.
Mr. Huizenga. Many of them tell me that they believe that
it has been the rise of radical Islam and jihadism that has
really brought that to the surface.
Whether you are saying that is a cultural thing or whether
it is a religious thing, I think we can't ignore the fact that
radical jihadists have taken on a very, very different tactic.
Let's put it that way, if you want to call violence a tactic.
Ms. Onubogu. Uh-huh.
Mr. Huizenga. But that is why, I think, this drives many of
us to say, OK, what is happening here? What has changed?
We know that there is violence throughout Africa, you know,
whether it is in South Sudan, whether it is in other places
that we are seeing, oftentimes--right now in Rwanda and in the
Congo, that conflict that is there right now. There is a lot of
mix to it, but I think, specifically, when it comes to Nigeria,
that there has been some sort of change.
Ms. Onubogu. Yes. And if I may just respond very quickly to
that.
While my family is from the southern part of Nigeria, I
grew up in the Middle Belt of Nigeria and, obviously,
understand the dynamics of the Middle Belt, indigent versus
non-indigent. I was also part and parcel, faced, looking at how
things have evolved over time.
So, even while we talk about Boko Haram today or the
recently identified new terror group Lakurawa that was just
mentioned in November, it also dates all the way back to the
1980's where there were groups like the Maitatsine movement and
others.
So the point that I am----
Mr. Huizenga. And oftentimes that was regarding moving of
energy and those kinds of things, correct?
Ms. Onubogu. Yes.
So the point I was making--or the point that I am making is
that the environment, the weakness of governance----
Mr. Huizenga. Sure.
Ms. Onubogu [continuing]. allows groups like these, allows
ideologies like these to thrive, and the weakness of governance
is at the root of these concerns.
Because data shows us that Nigerians value their unity,
Nigerians value their diversity. Very recent data shows us that
it is not about religion our ethnicity but the weaknesses in
government.
Mr. Huizenga. I think we are on parallel tracks. We may not
have our tracks cross exactly, but we are on parallel tracks. I
think there is a weakness of government that is clear on that.
But I do want to move on.
Mr. Chairman, we talked about and, in fact, Ms. Onubogu
referenced the December 2023 Christmas Eve killings. I led a
letter to the State Department, Mr. Chairman, that included
some folks who were on the committee, expressing concern to
Secretary Blinken and their decision in 2023 to not designate
Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern.
May 1, of 2024, I received a three-page letter back from
the Assistant Secretary where the word ``Christian'' appeared
once. It was alongside ``Islam'' in the response. I would like
to submit that for the record.
Mr. Smith. Without objection, so ordered.
[Please refer to the Appendix for this information]
Mr. Huizenga. So, basically, my calls to the State
Department went really unanswered. And, frankly, I think the
State Department employed, shall we say, active avoidance on
the issue, and I was given inadequate responses that failed to
address the concerns that many of us had.
I think, is part of the problem with the last
administration and among their staff, was an overt refusal to
acknowledge that Christians specifically were being targeted.
They would have no problem identifying others who had been
targeted, rightfully so, other ethnic minorities, but when it
specifically came to Christians, it wasn't politically a good
time for them to talk about it. And that is a huge problem.
The fact remains that 90 percent of global total Christian
deaths occur on the African continent. And that is according to
Open Doors, somebody that you had referenced earlier.
I want to ask all the witnesses: Do you believe that the
Tinubu administration has intentionally not taken the required
actions to ensure the safety and security of--we can broaden it
out for all ethnic minorities, but let's specifically address
Christians, as well, throughout the country.
Ms. Shea?
Ms. Shea. Yes. Thank you, Congressman, for your questions
and your comments.
Just to address the terror issue or the violence issue that
you raised, Nigeria did get worse on the Global Terrorism Index
over the past year. So it is quantitative that it is
intensifying.
The Fulani, for the last 20 years, have been being armed
with automatic weapons by, according to scholars, Nigerians
scholars, by cattle breeders who hire them. And so this is
contributing to the up-tick in violence as well.
I have forgotten your question now.
Mr. Huizenga. Oh, just whether the Tinubu administration--
--
Ms. Shea. Oh. Yes.
Mr. Huizenga [continuing]. has sort of intentionally--are
they doing what is really required to ensure safety of their
citizens?
Ms. Shea. Yes. You know, on intent and what they intend to
do, I have tried to bring out prominent voices in my testimony,
in my written testimony, who believe that this is deliberate on
the part of the government. There are others who feel that the
government is just lax, but some feel that the government is
complicit.
I saw that, frankly, in the Catholic Bishops' letter that
was released recently that was referred to by me and the
Bishop, about the fact that Islamic law of closing down--or at
least somebody's interpretation of Islamic law of closing down
all schools in some of the 12 northern states to observe,
forcibly observe, Ramadan is--part of the Bishops' alarm at
this is a sort of creeping introduction of Islam as the law of
the land, not only in those 12 northern states but throughout
the country.
I have heard that from a number of prominent voices,
whether Catholic Bishops or others--civic leaders and even
Governors of some of the southern states, central states.
Mr. Huizenga. I am going to skip over, if you don't mind,
Mr. Perkins, to the Bishop.
What is your take on the Tinubu administration? Are they
actively trying to protect that, or are they allowing it and
turning a blind eye?
Bishop Anagbe. I think, to my own opinion, the government
certainly has good intention, but there is no implementation.
And I think it is simply because they want to be politically
correct, not to offend any particular group of persons. And so
that is why the inactivity is taking place, and people are
feeling emboldened to continue to do what is going on.
And the failure of the security, further, to apprehend
those who are involved is a clear sign that they don't--they
just--everybody--people are dying.
So, if the government wants to take action, they will do.
Mr. Huizenga. You have been very generous, Mr. Chairman. I
do also want to hit on one other thing. You know, this hearing
is specifically about Nigeria, but given the expertise and the
people that we have, I would love to hear a little broader
view.
I had the opportunity to recently sit down with Bishop
Dennis Nthumbi, who is the African director of Israel Allies
Foundation. We talked at length about the systematic
persecutions of Christians and Jews that are happening
throughout the continent and the rise in antisemitism there.
Mr. Chairman, for the record, I would also like to post the
Bishop's report on accounts of widespread violence and
destruction of churches and other religious sites that have
been happening. So I would like to submit that for the record
here.
Mr. Smith. Without objection, so ordered.
[Please refer to the Appendix for this information:]
Mr. Huizenga. In fact, the Bishop is here with us today, in
the back. And I applaud him and his work as well.
But getting back to specifically Nigeria, you know, we have
seen a rise throughout the African continent. We are talking
specifically, though, about the tools that we have in Congress.
I am curious, from each one of the witnesses: Is the CPC,
this destination, is that necessary, and is it warranted for
Nigeria right now, or is this some sort of knee-jerk reaction?
Ms. Shea. Well, I think it is warranted. We can't fudge the
facts. We need the truth to come out. This is one of the worst
situations in the world, as you know, for Christians. And the
law is clear. If the government engages in or tolerates
egregious violations of religious freedom, which the government
certainly is, regardless of whether it is deliberate or not on
their part, I think that we must do that.
It does put pressure. Governments do not like to be on the
short list of the world's worst persecutors. It is a platform
for beginning to reassess American policy on how we deal with
this partnership that is increasingly uncomfortable and
untenable as they become more terror-ridden and their religious
communities are attacked relentlessly with impunity.
So, yes.
Mr. Huizenga. I will put you down as a ``yes''?
Ms. Shea. Put me down as a ``yes.''
Mr. Huizenga. Yes, Okay.
And I don't want to necessarily have to go back over as to
why it was removed. Our job here today is as to does this
administration need to reapply the CPC.
Mr. Perkins?
Mr. Perkins. I would say yes.
If I could provide some context, during my time as Chairman
of USCIRF, we didn't randomly give out CPC as, you know,
labels, that we just wanted to go after a particular country.
In fact, during my time, we worked to take countries off our
watchlist----
Mr. Huizenga. That is the goal, right?
Mr. Perkins. That is the goal. This is a tool.
Mr. Huizenga. I mean, we want to improve those relations.
Mr. Perkins. This is a tool.
We used it--we actually took Sudan off the list. I traveled
to Sudan. Unfortunately, things have changed there in the last
few years, but we were very hopeful. And this CPC status was a
tool. They wanted to get it off so that they could have access
to international banking. They didn't want to be on that list.
It worked.
We worked to get Egypt--I met with President El-Sisi
multiple times--to get them off the watchlist. And they were
making great progress.
Mr. Huizenga. It is kind of amazing when you look at some
of the list of countries, like Egypt, that have been on this,
and the fact that Nigeria and its current situation isn't seems
a little stunning to me.
Mr. Perkins. It does. That is why I do think it needs to be
on the list and utilized as a tool to address both the
religious-freedom issue and the underlying issues.
Mr. Huizenga. I have taken way too much time, but, Bishop,
quickly, and then Ms. Onubogu. Do you believe Nigeria should be
on this designation?
Bishop Anagbe. My response would be--thank you very much.
My response would be yes. One, because CPC designation is not
punitive. That is one. It is corrective so that you will be
able to see what----
Mr. Huizenga. Not punitive to the citizens, specifically--
--
Bishop Anagbe. Exactly.
Mr. Huizenga [continuing]. unlike a lot of other sanctions.
Bishop Anagbe. Exactly. It is not punitive.
It is also corrective so that you will be able to realign
yourself with the global practices of, like, human-rights
violations. We need to--you need to know.
And you have to, because Nigeria is not a--you can't say
it's just because it is a kind of domestic affair. Domestic
affair involves people's lives. And they are going. So the
world cannot watch while countries are just--citizens are just
being killed.
I would think, if we do this, that helps to bring the
financiers of these programs--or, these violations to book
first. The ammunition these terrorists, Fulanis or whoever,
carry along is not manufactured in Nigeria. It is bought
somewhere. Those local boys in the bush don't have money to buy
those ammunition. Who supplies them? Who equips them? So, if
this is done, certainly you have a searchlight on who is
involved.
So, for me, yes.
Mr. Huizenga. Okay.
Ms. Onubogu?
Ms. Onubogu. Thank you for that question.
Making a designation as what you said is beyond my
institutional purview. What I provide is more policy-focused,
nonpartisan, unbiased research, ensuring that the facts speak
for itself. I will leave that to the committee to make the
designation.
But as we look at the research in Nigeria and on Nigeria,
it is important that we understand that Nigeria is not your
typical nation-State. This is a State where identities are
formed along lines of ethnicity, religion. And so, at the end
of the day, those that may be--maybe try to hold accountable
may not actually see themselves as accountable to the citizens.
So this is why I say it is important for us to take a look
at the research, take a look at the data, to make informed
decisions.
Thank you.
Mr. Huizenga. So is that an official pass, not an opinion
as to whether we ought to have the CPC?
Ms. Onubogu. As I said, it is beyond my institutional
purview.
Mr. Huizenga. I would argue, Mr. Chairman, it is a policy
debate and discussion that we are having.
But, with that, I have taken a lot of time, and I
appreciate that, to my colleagues as well. I yield back.
Mr. Smith. Thank you.
I would like to now recognize Ms. Jayapal.
Ms. Jayapal. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Having lived and worked all over the world, including
across the African continent, on international health and
development, I think it is very important that we think about
how we use all the tools in the toolbox. And I have appreciated
USCIRF's work on protecting all religious freedom and calling
out countries, including my birth country of India, for issues
around persecution of Christians and Muslims. But I think the
central question here goes to Ms. Onubogu's point about
weakness of government.
I think that is the phrase you used. And I think it really
is critical. Because--it is not that I don't agree with Mr.
Perkins that we should address religious freedom. I do think we
should. But I think, at the core, when you look at this issue,
it is the weakness of government that allows extremism of any
religion to thrive.
That is why I think that the way in which USAID has now
been stripped and paused, all of the funding has been paused--
83 percent of funding for USAID has currently been stopped--is
a problem. Because many of those projects were actually trying
to address the underlying root causes that I think, perhaps,
there is some agreement on the panel that we should be
addressing.
And so The New York Times recently reported a list of words
and terms that the Trump administration has banned or
restricted from government communications. And those included
things like ``cultural differences,'' ``community diversity,''
``discrimination,'' ``prejudice,'' ``victim,'' and even
``women.'' It makes it very hard to think about nuanced
programs that address those underlying causes.
And so, Ms. Onubogu, I want to ask you, how would banning
projects that utilize those terms affect the U.S.'s ability to
accurately describe and respond to violence in Nigeria?
Ms. Onubogu. So thank you for the question.
Working in complex environments like Nigeria and elsewhere
requires being able to take into account the total picture of
occurrences in different parts of the country. The way we
define issues as peace and violence may seem different in
different communities and different--across different
communities in Nigeria.
So it would be necessary to take into account the
complexity and diversity of Nigeria toward trying to ensure we
can devise sustainable solutions to addressing root causes of
violence there.
Ms. Jayapal. In fact, I used ``diversity'' in my opening
statement, but that, I guess, would tag it as a project that is
not worthwhile.
I want to specifically focus on a State Department project
in northeastern Nigeria called Nigerian Youth CARE. This
program has been suspended by the Trump administration. It
provided Nigerian youth with mentorship and training on how to
bridge religious divides, and it launched initiatives that were
meant to reduce hate speech and inflammatory rhetoric on social
media.
Could you explain, Ms. Onubogu, how programs that focus on
inter-religious dialog can actually assist in reducing the
occurrence of religious violence and extremism?
Ms. Onubogu. Thank you.
So points about youth, youth making up--70 percent of the
population in Nigeria is below the age of 35. I think it has
been referenced by others on this panel, too, as well, the
importance of engaging youth.
I think in complex environments like Nigeria where
identities are formed or identities are formed around ethnicity
or religion, and especially in communities where we have seen
protracted conflicts that have taken on a different life of
their own, time after time--again, as I mentioned, in the case
of Plateau State, we have seen conflicts going on for over 20
years--it is important to bring voices together, to bring
people together, to bring communities together to be able to
identify what the problems are and find ways to work through
them together.
So being able to push inter-religious dialog or interfaith
dialog--and some of them we have witnessed on the ground--is a
good example of work that could be done to bridge divides,
bridge gaps in Nigeria.
In fact, data actually shows that, in Nigeria, as in some
other countries, too, as well, on the continent, but in Nigeria
specifically, religious leaders actually are really trusted by
their communities. And we have seen several examples of
interfaith mediation efforts across Nigeria that have been
really successful.
Ms. Jayapal. Well, that leads me to another project around
good governance. The International Republican Institute
formerly funded a project in Nigeria to educate political party
leaders on good governance strategies and bringing
traditionally politically marginalized groups in Nigeria,
including women, young people, religious minorities, into the
political process. That is another project that this
administration has ended.
What is the importance of representative democracy in
Nigeria and the value of representation for traditionally
marginalized groups, including religious minorities?
I will start with you.
But I am interested in your perspective on this as well,
Mr. Perkins.
Ms. Onubogu. Thank you.
So, as I mentioned in my remarks, elections and political
appointments are two important areas where we see the interplay
between religion and politics, where we have seen time and time
again that politicians romanticize Nigeria's unity, but,
basically, when it comes to elections, they just use it to
instigate and galvanize votes.
As I mentioned, this year, 2025, is a critical year for
elections in Nigeria. The chair of Nigeria's Independent
National Election Commission, his term runs out in December of
this year.
If we go back to 2023 and we see how divisive those
elections were, it is important to start laying the groundwork
now to ensure that political actors are not in a position to
utilize religion or utilize ethnicity to foment violence and to
garner votes. We are already seeing examples of what is
happening with the by-elections that happened in 2024.
So it is really important to start, as the country, as
Nigeria starts thinking about sort of the makeup of the
leadership, what the new leadership of Nigeria's Independent
Election Commission could look like. This is an opportunity to
start engaging and identifying key stakeholders in the
political space and in civil society, as well, to work together
toward ensuring that citizens--that, basically, the faith of
citizens is restored in the electoral process.
Ms. Jayapal. Thank you.
Mr. Perkins, as I said, I have utilized some of your work
and USCIRF's work in other regions, because I think it is
important for us to be consistent in allowing for all religious
freedom, not just for some.
Your views on how religious freedom and governance, good
governance, and democracy interact and why it is important to
ensure that we really are protecting it in a place like
Nigeria, where you have a very divided population religiously
and you need to pay attention to all religious freedom--how
would you speak to the importance of that?
Mr. Perkins. Well, thank you for that question. And I
appreciate your interest in this. And you have correctly
analyzed it.
I did a lot of interfaith work in the Middle East, sitting
down with imams, sitting down with evangelicals in places where
they were a very extreme minority. Here in Nigeria, it is a
pretty much divided country, equally.
Ms. Jayapal. Yes.
Mr. Perkins. I think it goes back to what has been
identified here, is the governance of the country and the will
of the current administration.
Now, we could point to a lot of programs--I bet if you and
I sat down and had a cup of coffee, we would identify probably
a number of programs that we would agree with. Probably
wouldn't agree on everything, but we would agree on some
things. We have been doing those programs for decades in
Nigeria, and we have not seen the positive outcomes.
And so, when we move to see the State Department designate
in 2020 this country as a Country of Particular Concern, it was
to get the attention of the government of the country so that
we might get them to be willfully engaged, like we have seen in
other countries.
So I think this is really not a question about, are some of
these projects viable and should they be in place? I think we
would all agree that, yes, there are some. But----
Ms. Jayapal. Well, not everyone agrees, unfortunately. I
mean, 83 percent of these projects have been cut.
Mr. Perkins. I understand that.
Ms. Jayapal. And the question is, do you take a hatchet to
something, or do you take a scalpel to something?
Mr. Perkins. Well, I think we are in a situation where we
have to do something different, because the outcomes have not
changed. And I think taking this approach, as we are focused on
today, declaring this designation as a Country of Particular
Concern, hopefully would get the government's attention so that
we can have this collaboration to address the underlying issues
that have allowed religion to be utilized as a weapon of
division.
Ms. Jayapal. Well, I agree with you that religion is
utilized as a weapon too often. And there are extremists in all
religions. I have seen that--you know, my birth country of
India has--I am proud that we have had so many religions living
side-by-side. And my home State of Kerala is the place where we
have the most Christians in the country. And so I understand
the importance of that.
But I again go back to your very important point about all
of the pieces that are essential here. And I hope that, as we
continue this dialog, we think about what it does when you just
destroy everything all at once. The hole that is left in the
countries that we have been providing critical aid to is
enormous, and we know that extremists go to fill any hole that
is there.
And so I would just argue that actually it is a very
important part of how the United States should be engaging with
Nigeria and with countries around the world, to not eliminate
and create huge holes in humanitarian assistance and in
governance and democracy projects and all of these things.
Because, when you do, you are creating another opportunity for
chaos to be exploited.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much.
I recognize Mr. Baird.
Mr. Baird. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you for
holding this very informative meeting.
I really appreciate the witnesses being here.
But I want to do this. During the Trump administration,
Nigeria was rightfully placed on a special watchlist and
eventually was designated as a Country of Particular Concern,
CPC, we have been talking about.
I was disappointed by the Biden administration's decision
to not designate Nigeria as a CPC in the period of 2020 through
2024 with no real reason. And that was despite consistent
recommendations from the United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom to maintain that designation.
So, as the second Trump administration continues its work,
the committee has a unique opportunity to reevaluate the United
States' policy toward Nigeria in a manner that bolsters
stability and religious freedom.
My question goes to Ms. Shea and Mr. Perkins.
A country that is designated and cited as a CPC carries
with it a suite of varying sanctions that the President can
levy on those countries. So how would these potential
punishments, which the President can waive for national-
security reasons, how would that prepare the Nigerian
Government to make more systematic action to prevent religious-
activated violence?
Ms. Shea. Thank you for your question. I will just give one
quick answer, and then I will turn it over to Mr. Perkins, who
has a whole roster of recommendations that they developed
during his term on USCIRF.
You know, Nigeria is a rich country. It is one of the
largest economies, if not the largest economy, in Africa. So it
is rich in natural resources, it is rich in human resources.
And when Nigerians come to our country, they do extremely well.
In fact, they are one of the most successful immigrant groups
in the United States.
They need law and order. They need a government with the
political will to apply the law and to hold people accountable,
as we all acknowledged today. And to do that, I think that they
are going to need some pressure, some sanctions on particular
officials to deny them visas and bank accounts and financial
opportunities here.
I recommend--and Chairman Smith was the pioneer of this in
his legislation that he got through. So I think we have to make
good use of that and the Magnitsky sanctions, the Global
Magnitsky.
I will stop there and let Mr. Perkins----
Mr. Perkins. Well, as has been discussed already, it allows
for both surgical--going after certain individuals, as Nina was
just talking about, with sanctions.
It would also affect foreign aid, which I believe will be
coming back in different forms and fashions. It will get their
attention and put them on a particular path of having to give
an account.
It will affect programs. We have been talking about
programs, how necessary those programs are, but it affects
that. It affects businesses. It depends on how far the
President or the administration would want to go.
Unfortunately, what we have seen in the past is that these
sanctions, when we have a CPC status, they have been waived, as
you made reference to in your comments. I would encourage the
administration not to waive these sanctions but to apply them
until Nigeria wants to come to terms to address the underlying
issues that led to the CPC status.
Mr. Baird. One other question in that regard. You know,
sometimes we send this assistance, but it ends up being
diverted off because of the situation in the country. And so I
think it is important that we have governance, as we have been
talking about, in this session in order. And you mentioned that
about governance in order to make sure that the programs are
administered properly. So I agree with that. So I thank both of
you.
So, Ms. Onubogu, do you have any questions or any concerns?
Ms. Onubogu. Nothing, sir. Thank you.
Mr. Baird. Bishop?
Bishop Anagbe. No.
Mr. Baird. I thank you, and I yield back.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much. Mr. Jackson?
Mr. Jackson of Illinois. Thank you much, Chairman. I am
honored to be with you. I thank each and every one of you for
participating today and your outstanding comments.
First of all, I would like to acknowledge, are there--or
question in general--are in any Muslims in the panel present
today?
Mr. Smith. Will the gentleman yield? I will tell you why I
didn't do it.
Mr. Jackson of Illinois. Yes, sir.
Mr. Smith. If we had a Muslim here, when he or she went
back, they might be killed. I met with many Muslim Imams in
Nigeria on several trips, every time I was told that if they
speak out, they are marked, and they will be visited.
Now the Christians are in a similar, but not exactly quid
pro quo it is going to happen. That is why we are very worried
about the bishop, but that is why there is nobody here.
But, you know, just so you know, I speak out for the
Muslims as well. But here we did not want to have that
situation because we thought of it, and we thought of it very
seriously.
Mr. Jackson of Illinois. Okay. Thank you so much, Chairman.
I just wanted the record to reflect that.
The question probably is in the dismantling of the USAID,
the Trump administration recently terminated a USAID program
called Partner that supported peace-building efforts in
northern and north central Nigeria. The $2 million project
helped to strengthen the country's early warning and security
response systems and provide training for local leaders,
including religious leaders on conflict mitigation and conflict
resolution. This project and others like it helped provide
local leaders with the mechanisms to alert law enforcement to
possible conflicts before they happen.
Partner also helped to facilitate communications between
farmer and herder community leaders, often individuals from
different religious backgrounds in an attempt to bridge the gap
between the two groups.
Ms. Onubogu, what are some of these early warning signs of
conflict that you have experienced?
Ms. Onubogu. Thank you for your question. I think going
back to my initial remarks, security is at the center of
addressing a lot of these concerns that we see in Nigeria.
While several communities have been able to put in place early
warning signals based on how they communicate in their
communities; being able to know who is a new person that comes
into the community; or if they see things changing, they are
able to track changes in their communities as well. The concern
has often been that sometimes response is lacking. And response
is lacking because of the way Nigeria security's structure,
Nigeria security architecture is set up.
As I mentioned, there have been several attempts at police
reform in Nigeria. This is an area where the government needs
to strengthen its approach. We have seen even from Open Doors
themselves have also mentioned that the Nigerian Government
under Tinubu has been making some attempts to address the
security concerns; to ensure that they are able to bolster the
response mechanisms.
As I mentioned, securities are pretty strong at identifying
where the problem areas are, where the gaps are. Then should
continue to be supported to ensure they build resilience
structures in their communities to withstand any sort of
violence or intrusion that might come in.
But on the security side, on bolstering and strengthening
the security architecture, these are areas where we need to
focus on to ensure that any response also matches the early
warning signals that are coming from communities.
Mr. Jackson of Illinois. Thank you so much. And this is a
question open to all. When we talk about security and security
drivers, what would you say is the leading cause of the
security or the insecurity drivers?
Ms. Onubogu. So Nigeria is really faced--across every
region of the country is facing some form of insecurity or the
other. There are different forms of conflict. All of them
overlapping in some ways or the other and all protracted over
time. So they all take on a different shape or form of their
own.
Mr. Jackson of Illinois. Is there a commonality.
Ms. Onubogu. The underlying issue there is a lack of
governance and also just the weaknesses in holding perpetrators
accountable for their actions. That is the underlying issue
there.
Mr. Jackson of Illinois. OK. Would you like to add to that,
Mr. Perkins?
Mr. Perkins. I agree. And when we are talking about the
issue of governance, it is really kind of the hub which
despokes of the programs. And without the hub, the programs
don't really work. They will collapse. And I am familiar with
some of those programs--one that you actually mentioned. There
is also a lot of nongovernmental organizations that are working
to facilitate communication between various faith groups, not
just in Nigeria, but around the world.
But when you have a lack of response--as the Bishop
testified--there was a 2-week notice given, but no response
from the government.
And so until we get the attention of the hub, and we get
Nigeria's government agreeing that they have got to reform and
provide protection and rights for all their people, I don't
think our programs work.
Mr. Jackson of Illinois. Well, let me ask you one other
question generally to the panel. Will the CPC increase or
decrease food security amongst the Nigerians?
Mr. Perkins. Well, I will say from history what we have
found is that the CPC status gets the attention of the
government and----
Mr. Jackson of Illinois. The question is will it increase
or decrease?
Mr. Perkins. Well, I think long-term it will increase
because it will deal with the underlying issues which have
created instability, insecurity in the country.
Mr. Jackson of Illinois. How about in the short-term?
Mr. Perkins. We have a real risk in the short-term just
because of present circumstances. As we have talked about, the
bread belt or the bread basket of the country is being--the
farmers are being displaced. So we have a real issue. And this
is why this is urgent is because if we don't address it now--
and you see the migration coming out of Nigeria as has been
testified to today--the surrounding countries can't handle it.
You will have a serious shortage of food, shelter, and
security.
Mr. Jackson of Illinois. OK. Thank you. I am very familiar
with the region and the insecurity on the northern borders.
Probably the last part I will leave to that is we first start
with the demographics. And I would assume most of us are
Christians that are in here. And when you have children, even
scripturally, the Bible has a mandate on us feeding the
children. I don't think many of the children in Nigeria that
ideologically are drawn--if you look at more than half the
population, the 110 million people that are under the age of 18
years of age are not that ideologically driven. And I looked up
a number that yesterday I found probably pretty astounding,
that 41 percent of the population of Nigerians are under the
age of 15. Forty-one percent of the population is under the age
of 15.
I think that the CPC would enhance more insecurity for
food. I think it is very important that you feed children, and
out of that you can gain their attention. Even we know the
scriptures of Jesus having had the lunch and fed the multitude.
And he brought those children in. He fed them and asked them to
come forth. Ms. Shea?
Ms. Shea. Yes, thank you. Yes, I agree that food and
medicine need to continue in our foreign assistance programs
for Nigeria. I think that we also need to tackle the underlying
issues of terror and violence so that people can go back to
farming. Because there is a dirth of arable farmland.
So I do think that giving hope, giving--sustaining the
people during this period is important, but it is also
important to correct the problem. Because this is a man-made
problem of extremism, of violence, of AKs being handed out. And
it is outrageous that the government doesn't take back the land
that has been taken and give it back to their proper owners.
That is no way to run a country.
So the beauty of CPC is that it has sanctions that are
surgical that can target particular people, not the entire
country. I wouldn't recommend CPC to have a sanction that would
cutoff food or medical aid.
Mr. Jackson of Illinois. Are there any dangers to using
CPC? Any downside?
Ms. Shea. I don't see any downside. I see--you know, it is
like a terrorism index. You need to have a factual analysis on
what are the problems of the country to solve them. And if we
only see climate change, which is a problem, but if that is the
sole rationale--and that is what the UNHCR seems to think based
on its writings on its website.
The Mimi case that I gave in my testimony, they concluded
was the result of climate change, only. They ignored the
religious identities involved, and the intense and motives of
the people who were attacking Mimi and her family.
So climate change is a problem. There are no short-term
solutions to that. There is a short-term solution to
radicalization and violence and criminality. It is police work.
Mr. Jackson of Illinois. OK. Mr. Chairman, in closing, a
population that is under 30 that is 70 percent, I think that
our Nation will be best served in trying to get this young
nation that is now showing its maturity in forming a democracy,
that is still extremely fragile, that has a lot of conflict
borders on the north that I think are creating more hardship on
such a young population, and particularly on children that are
under the age of 15, I like food as a tool more than sanctions
and punitive measures. I think it is theologically sound, and I
have not heard that being expressed. Mr. Chairman, I yield
back.
Mr. Smith. Thank you. I want to just yield myself a couple
of minutes, and then I will go to my colleague.
Just for the record, and I thank you for your concern for
food. I have written two laws, Global Food Security Act, which
is our law. The IRFA bill when we did it back in 1998, we made
sure that humanitarian assistance was exempted. The idea of
taking away food security--and your point was well taken--would
be counterproductive.
I think one of the hallmarks of the legislation on Global
Food Security Act was to emphasize the first thousand days of
life from conception to the second birthday. That if mother and
baby get the food, folic acid, all kinds of supplementation,--
and we do have a very good program, as you know, as does the
U.N. on those things, food security--you get healthier kids.
And one of the focuses that we have had in Nigeria and
elsewhere, but especially in Nigeria is stunting. And when you
have that first thousand days fully--and the women get the
supplementation, good solid nutrition, baby and mother thrive.
So great point. But the good news is that in writing the
legislation, we want to make sure that that was not mal-
affected in any country, including Nigeria. And I would just
add that where all of these supplementations have happened,
including places like Honduras, which has another problem with
stunting, it doesn't go away, but it greatly mitigates it. So
thank you for your point.
I mean, food is just so essential. And the beauty of the
IRFA bill is that it does provide--you know, it is a two-step
process. I think you all know this. But the first one is the
designation; getting it right and calling out an egregious
violator in terms of what they are doing or what they are
tolerating by not answering the call, and the Bishop and anyone
else says to the police, please come. We have got a, you know,
motorcyclist here, and they are killing people. And they don't
show up. And they never show up. And then there is no
accountability. There is no investigation. There is no
prosecution. I mean, that is just absolutely egregious.
So designating the country as a CPC gets them on the record
that we have taken note, you have violated our law, and we are
going to take action.
Now the next point is the action phase, and that is purely
up to the administration no matter who is in the White House.
And as Mr. Perkins indicated, there has been a lack of part 2
since 1998.
We find the exact same thing on trafficking. I wrote our
trafficking laws, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. I am
the prime author of it. It has the same double edge. You start
off by designating a country. Be honest and accurate if they
have a problem with sex and labor trafficking. And that part 2
is the enforcement of sanctions that are prescribed in the law.
So I am all, you know, with you on the same page. We have
got to make sure that food security is available and people are
helped by it. So thank you for that. I appreciate that very
much.
I would like to now recognize Mr. Olszewski for such time
as he may consume.
Mr. Olszewski. Thank you all very much. Representative
Olszewski from Baltimore. I really appreciate you, Chairman
Smith, our ranking member. And I want to thank all of our
witnesses, who I know many of whom have traveled a great
distance. I really appreciate you being here. Thanks to modern
technology. I am glad that I was able to listen in through the
entirety of today's hearing, even as I dealt with traffic
myself in my travels today.
I want to start my saying, as someone of deep faith like
many of my colleagues here, I am deeply concerned about both
religious freedoms and violence, religious violence, but also
violence of all types. What we know that what is happening in
Nigeria demands that we all work together. In response, I think
we can agree that given the scale and the duration of the
violence, given the importance of Nigeria as a country both to
Africa, but also to the world, I think it really demands that
we are open to thinking differently about our historical
responses. But I think that we need to think holistically about
that. And maybe that means not just looking at what our
traditional tools have been.
I think we can start. And I would encourage this
administration, the Trump administration, to openly call out
the actions of the government and their failure to take action.
I saw all of the heads nodding around the conversation around
accountability across the board to a person. I think we could
send our Secretary of State to go talk to the government to
raise these concerns to lift up these American voices. And I
think that we can then indicate that additional action might be
forthcoming.
I think what is troubling as some of my colleagues have
raised, however, though, is that event as we are contemplating
sanctions and actions, we are seeing a retreat of our
investment and our involvement in the country. A lot of
conversations already happened around USAID, so I won't retread
those, Mr. Chairman. But I do want to dig in a little bit
around the issue of education, which is one of those issues
that is deeply personal to me as a former educators. And it is
also one of those places that have not been exempted from the
funding freeze and the retractment that we are seeing. And I
see the Bishop nodding. And I actually wanted to direct one of
my questions to you, Bishop. Because as my colleague,
Representative Jackson, mentioned there are so many young
people in this country. They are the future of the country. And
education, I think, is so foundational to the success of
Nigeria, but also to combatting this religious persecution, the
religious violence that we are seeing.
And so, you know, we know, for example, that Boko Haram and
other terrorist organizations have targeted schools to
undermine education across the country.
An estimated 2,000 Christian schools were attacked in
Nigeria between 2009 and 2021. Hundreds of teachers have been
deliberately killed with thousands more forced to flee. We know
that also since 2014, the U.S. has invested in our primary
education system in Nigeria, helping 2.9 million students
improve their literacy and training. In 21,595 teachers and
out-of-school youth programs, we have reached more than half a
million children in effective conflict regions. Again, we know
that proper education and effective education is a key to drive
out violent extremism.
Again, the Trump administration canceled our education
programs in Nigeria. So I would say, Bishop, if you could just
speak a little bit about how we can keep our children safe and
our educators safe and the impact of these programs. And I
would just also open it up to anyone else on the panel who
might want to talk a little bit about the importance of
investing in education to tackle some of these issues as well.
Bishop Anagbe. Thank you very much for these but I think
also just like you State, education is the key to the human
development. And education for us is not just academic
excellence or pursuance. But the holistic approach affects the
person's life and is actually what this crisis of violence have
continued for the past two decades is what we can't quantify.
In villages, we have schools that have been closed down,
bombed, and people have left. These children are in the camps,
and actually they don't have any basic form of training or
formation. And, of course, some of them survived looking at
their parents being killed. Maybe they are able to run, young
children, the age of 12, 13. And there is some seriously and of
serious concern, women are still giving birth in these camps,
and without education. I am not talking about health or dignity
for the women and all of that. But this basically means you
have some people who are about 18 years who have not really had
any basic education in some of these camps and this space. And,
of course, it is difficult to change their orientation or
mentality. Some of them are already because the need to de-
radicalize them from some of these things that is going on in
their minds. And this is close I tell you. That is like we are
breeding another group of terrorists. And at the age of 25 they
become enough to handle whatever they want to, and then nobody
will stay.
And what we do maybe on my local level as a Bishop who had
education in a major which actually working with the State
government of my own, there are about 200 and something of
these children, though, not as small, not a primary school, but
secondary school in all my schools, 250 something in my
schools, because this you can give them burden of education.
But I know what it means. What about the younger ones who
can't leave their families or leave their mothers? We have
talked similarly with the government to establish the schools
in these camps. Whereby some of this is we have displaced our
degree holders who can also take care of--and the government
paid them the stipends for them to keep, and the government is
not interested in it. But I tell you this is going to spare
doom for a nation in this present age, whereby we are that
education, I will say, is the key.
It is becoming so difficult. We are getting back to the
barbaric stage. And that is what I think what these
perpetrators want to be. And like you said, if they are able to
handle this because bring them to go through this designation
of CPC, many people will be held accountable for what is going
on. Thereby, there was some fear instilled in them. If we do
this, the government will come after you.
And the government is seriously minded and concerned. I
tell you this is within. And it is not just immediately, yes,
not just because of a short term. But I tell you, if the IDPs
return to the ancestral homes, to be honest with you, in three
or 4 years, they wouldn't ask anybody for feeding. Five years
ago, they don't ask enough to feed them. Ten years ago, they
don't get food from anybody because there are substantive
farmers taking care of their needs. Twenty are children.
Because a victim of that come from such a background.
My father, my parents, we are farmers, and that way he
trained us. And I went to boarding school in the eighties. So I
see no reason why we should not in this age. This is happening,
and the government is keeping quiet.
That is where we are at, line for this because if this is
not done we are going to breed hooligans as a Nation.
Mr. Olszewski. With that, Mr. Chairman, I will recommit to
work with you and this subcommittee on any other actions we can
work together on to look at this differently. I appreciate the
answer. And I just will, I think, reinforce my earlier point
that I hope to see this administration act in the meantime and
also hope to work to find ways to not just reinstitute our
funding for education. But also, I think this reenforces the
point we should be doing more to help, especially our young
people, whether it is vocational training so they can become
substantive farmers, or to do more to ensure that we have this
lack of radicalization among our young people. I think it is so
important that we catch people young.
Mr. Perkins, it looks like you wanted to mention something.
Mr. Perkins. You are absolutely right. Education is a key
element. And that is why the radical Islamists have been
targeting the schools. There has been 17 mass abductions in the
last 6 years from schools. Over 1,700 kids have been snatched
out. And the reason for that, No. 1, is targeting girls to keep
them from getting the education. So, again, it is the
underlying issue of security of the government performing its
role.
Mr. Olszewski. I know that that is true for Christians and
Islam. Those are--and the schools alike, and I agree. But it is
not an either/or, right? We can do both. We can both hold
governments accountable for taking action for perpetrators.
But, also, I think--I just wanted to reinforce the point, I
think we also need to do the other piece of this work as well.
So thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much. Just to conclude--and
anything you would like to add as we close--I would like to
recognize Pastor Emmanuel Ogabi, who is a good friend. We
traveled together a few times to Nigeria. He introduced me to
the CAN, the Association of Christian Leaders. And he also was
able to arrange for me to meet with several of the parents of
Chibok girls. And that was moving beyond words to see how much
suffering they were enduring. So thank you, Pastor, for your
insights over many, many years.
We are also joined by Pastor Akila Yusef, who is the
regional overseer of the All House On the Rock Churches in
northeast Nigeria. He is the president of Cutting-Edge
Ministries Network about 200 pastors in the Middle Belt region.
So thank you to him for being here today. I deeply appreciate
that.
And just to conclude--and again any final comments you
might want to make--I would note that the Bishops's village was
burnt yesterday. I mean, it is like it is ever present the
violence that is being endured by the Christians, and to a
lesser extent, but no less significant by the Muslims who are
pioused and want to live out their faith.
I remember meeting with one Imam in Nawho who told me--and
he spoke very highly of Christians. And he said, Boko Haram is
not us. It is not us, but we can't speak out. If we do, we are
targeted. And so I--another reason why we do not have a Muslim
cleric from Nigeria here today.
But if you wanted to--let me just also point out, the
letter that came to Mr. Huizenga, you know, part of our
frustration has been that the Nigerian Government has not been
successful. And they even acknowledge it in a letter explaining
why they did not redesignate a country of particular concern to
Nigeria. And they said the government has been working to find
solutions to the problems, but it has been largely unsuccessful
in addressing these threats.
How hard have they really worked? I mean, you know, law
enforcement is so basic to any functioning society. And if it
is the killers and the murderers and the rapists can operate
with impunity, that democracy is a dire threat, and individual
lives of believers are then put in grave risk as well.
Bishop, your point today and your testimony where you said,
Militant Fulani herdsmen are terrorists. They steal and
vandalize. They kill and boast about it. They kidnap and rape.
And they enjoy total impunity from the elected officials. None
of them have been arrested and brought to justice.
That is the message we are bringing to the government that
we are aware of it, and we are going to do everything we can to
try to get a CPC designation immediately from this
administration.
What they do in terms of sanctioning is purely up to them.
But hopefully there won't be a need because there will be a
movement toward trying to address these unaddressed needs. And
it is not like a lot of us haven't been raising it for
decades--I have, you guys have, and many of you have been doing
it forever. So we just--and, Tony, you as well. You know, we
were not impatient. It just has to happen. So any final remarks
before we conclude?
Bishop Anagbe. Thank you very much once again for this. My
simple request, which I don't know how best it is going to go,
but all the witnesses have been able to make it somehow to work
with the community and the religious leaders.
For instance, I will say in case of assistance, in terms of
funding, if it is possible for the religious leaders in those
places be able to put them--I mean, come to know what exactly
is coming to the area. Because we as religious leaders go to
where government cannot go. And most of these people who are
displaced eventually run back to the churches where everybody
relies on a place that have safety. Humanity is speaking. Not
just it is guaranteed. But then same that they look after their
needs and the basic things we can.
And we know if the government works, the Army will take
people back to their homes and in a very short, why, five, 10
years, reasonably, Nigeria will bounce back to its status.
Ms. Onubogu. Thank you, Chairman Smith, again, for
convening this hearing. And I hope that there will be future
opportunities for hearings on Nigeria and other countries
across the African continent to be able to discuss U.S.-Africa
relations.
Just to restate a few points that I made about the
importance of Nigeria, which is one that several U.S.
administrations have often highlighted. What happens in Nigeria
also impacts the broader West African region, and we are aware
of the issues that are happening across West Africa.
On the question on security, Nigeria security challenges
are also impacted by what happens outside of the country as
well. In 2018, 2017, there was data that basically showed that
a lot of the small arms that are present in Nigeria that there
are about 50 percent of the small arms in West African region
are in Nigeria. Obviously, that might not have grown as well.
So there are overlapping security challenges and significant
help that is needed to restructure and reform Nigeria's
security architecture.
I think at the end of the day, we have to examine and ask,
you know, how labels and designations could work, and if those
actually address the root causes of the issues that we are
trying to tackle in Nigeria. And I think the need leaving it on
that point is the root causes of the conflicts that we see are
complex, and it is important that there is holistic efforts on
the part of the U.S. in partnership with Nigerian Government
and civil society actors to address the cause of these
conflicts.
Mr. Smith. Thank you, again, to our distinguished
witnesses. I do want to note that Samson Adejorin who is here
who is the charge for the Nigerian Embassy, thank you for
joining us today.
I will also point out, you know, in terms of capability, I
remember being in Bosnia during the war there, I was in Darfur
years later, and I ran into a peacekeeper who was at both
cases. Where was he from? Nigeria. Totally committed to
securing the peace. Major Ajumbo was his name. And I was so
moved by him. You know, he was so committed to peace. So there
is a capability there that needs to be recognized, realized,
and really led by those in authority. And that has what is been
lacking, you know, failure to govern to quote one of our
witnesses today.
So thank you so much. I want to thank our witnesses for
their valuable testimony and the members for their questions.
The members of the subcommittee may have some additional
questions for the witnesses. And we will ask that you respond
to them in writing pursuant to the committee rules. All members
have 5 days to submit statements, questions, and extraneous
materials for the record subject to the length limitations.
Without objection, the committee stands adjourned. And thank
you so very much.
[Whereupon, at 11:37 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
APPENDIX
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