The United States Assistant Secretary of State, Africa, Ambassador Tibor
Nagy has said that while the Fulani Herdsmen and Farmers conflicts in
Nigeria has assumed religious coloration, the herdsmen have become much
more radicalized.
Ambassador Nagy made the assertion at a Ministerial summit to Advance
Religious Freedom, hosted by the U.S State Department in Washington DC.
The America’s top diplomat for Africa was responding to queries from
international human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe.
Mr. Ogebe had asked the Assistant Secretary of State whether the Trump
administration was still towing the line of one of his predecessors
Johnny Carson who insisted that the conflict in Nigeria was “not
religious.”
He lamented the fact that while Africa was faced with the terror of
radical islamism from the Middle East, Africa was also buffeted from the
other side by western liberalism during which the prior administration
had threatened to cut off aid if Africans did not subscribe to their
views. Ogebe asked Ambassador Nagy if the position of the State
Department had changed under the current administration.
While thanking the Assistant Secretary for hosting a session on Africa
per his recommendation following the non representation of Africa in
last year’s Ministerial, Ogebe submitted that the real challenge to
Religious Freedom in sub Saharan Africa was “political correctness and
refusal to admit realities on ground.” He said that there was adequate
data on the situation in Nigeria but decried a situation where a US
agency wrongly reported reprisals by Christians after the St Ignatius
massacre in Benue State. Ogebe queried why Nigeria had not been
designated a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) like Sudan and Eritrea.
Responding, the Assistant Secretary said, “I can assure you that the
religious component of the farmer v herder conflict in Nigeria is taking
on a much more important factor than it has in the past. Now I will say
one thing: that I think we need to accept about the farmer v herder
conflict. It is not uniquely Nigerian. It goes across the continent from
Mauritania all the way through Sudan. Parts of it it’s Christian v
Muslim, parts of it is Muslim v Muslim, parts of it their ethnic
dimensions.
“Unfortunately I heard it said that the Fulani are becoming radicalized.
More and more places, we absolutely see that. Another truth is, I don’t
think anybody can argue with it, is that almost all of these conflicts
there are multiple factors involved. And it starts- I guess it goes with
lack of opportunity, population growth, poor governance.. We can go
through the whole list. I would argue that issue number one – you have
to stop the violence because the poor people who are killed are dead
immaterial of whether they’re killed because of their religion, their
ethnicity, whatever. So we have to look at these things realistically.
And unfortunately we can’t deal with the whole conflict in one way.
“Remember Joseph Stalin said very cynically that four deaths is a
tragedy, a million is a statistic. So we have to look at this really
country, by country, by country. And you know Mali is one thing and
Nigeria is another thing, and look at all of the factors unfortunately
because of the complexity. The solution is not that complicated, because
if you give people economic rights, good governments, opportunity for
jobs and a livelihood, then lo and behold miracles happen and they get
along. You know, when I teach on Africa I tell my students that the one
country in the world where you have people who really, really- inside
the same boundary – people who really don’t like each other, but they
get along great is Switzerland. Because they divide their riches instead
of their poverty. That’s why I’m so keen on really pushing for Africa’s
young people to have opportunities, so they can look past these
differences and we can get the continent back to the way it used to be –
when people did get along.”
Ambassador Nagy did not address the other questions but a panelist from
the Hudson Institute, Religious Freedom Lawyer, Nina Shea had also
pointed out how the New York Times erroneously reported last year that
Fulani Herdsmen were threatened by Nigerian Farmers.
Also speaking at the event was Mariam Ibrahim, a Sudanese woman who was
sentenced to death for apostasy by marrying a Christian. Mrs Ibrahim
narrated how the court postponed her execution for two years because she
was pregnant till she finished nursing her baby. She said her baby saved
her life and ended up being the youngest American born into captivity
before her freedom was ultimately negotiated by the Pope.
Last week’s Ministerial was billed as the largest human rights event in
the world with over 1000 participants from 130 countries. British
ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair was amongst key leaders who addressed the
summit.