Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has said that \u201cIf, as a nation, we do not
\nkill religious persecution and extremism, then religious persecution and
\nextremism will kill Nigeria.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also said that, \u201cthe potential danger associated with the level of
\nconflicts going on across the country is so glaring that no sane mind can
\nignore.\u201d He said it is not in the best interest of the U.S. and indeed the
\ninternational community to ignore Nigeria.\u201d Jonathan gave the statement in
\na speech he delivered at the U.S. House Sub Committee on Africa on
\nFebruary 1, 2017. The speech is titled, \u201cChallenges of Nigerian Christians
\nand the Niger Delta Question-A Summary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read the full speech below:<\/p>\n
Challenges of Nigerian Christians and the Niger Delta Question-A Summary A
\nPresentation by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Chairman of the Goodluck Jonathan
\nFoundation to the U.S. House Sub Committee on Africa, February 1, 2017<\/p>\n
Let me start by thanking Congressman, Christopher H. Smith, Chairman U.S.
\nHouse Sub-Committee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and
\nInternational Organizations for inviting me to share my views on the
\ncrisis facing Christians in Nigeria today and the Niger Delta question.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Congress is a powerful institution not just for good governance
\nin the U.S. but also for global peace and development. Over the years, the
\nU.S. Congress has shown consistent interest in African affairs and I thank
\nyou for this and for showing interest in Nigeria. Congressman Smith has
\npersonally visited troubled spots in Nigeria and especially those
\ngeo-political zones that are considered the frontline of ethnic and
\nreligious conflicts. He has also visited the Niger Delta. I sincerely
\nthank him for these efforts<\/p>\n
Over the years, the U.S. Congress has shown consistent interest in African
\naffairs and I thank you for this and for showing interest in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Congressman Smith has personally visited troubled spots in Nigeria and
\nespecially those geo-political zones that are considered the frontline of
\nethnic and religious conflicts. He has also visited the Niger Delta.<\/p>\n
I sincerely thank him for these efforts. File: Former President Jonathan
\ngiving his speech at Oxford In your invitation letter, you highlighted a
\nnumber of very sensitive issues you wanted me to touch on. I group all
\nthese issues under \u2018Challenges Facing Nigerian Christians and the Niger
\nDelta Question\u2019. A full discussion on even one of these issues may take a
\nminimum of two hours, but here, I am expected to be very brief.<\/p>\n
I will therefore present a bird\u2019s eye view, but when next your committee
\nvisits Nigeria, even more detailed presentations will be made by other
\nstake holders.<\/p>\n
2. Nigeria and the World<\/p>\n
I read a paper presented by Princeton N. Lyman, a former U.S. ambassador
\nto Nigeria, suggesting that Nigeria is no longer strategic to U.S.
\ninterests in Africa and the world as it used to be. Ambassador Lyman may
\nhave had valid reasons for such a view point, but I make bold to say that
\nthe relationship between the U.S. and Nigeria has come a long way since
\nPrime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa\u2019s State Visit to the U.S. in July of
\n1961 and that relationship should not only endure, but be built upon.
\nNigeria, as a nation, is relevant to the U.S. in my opinion especially
\nwhen you consider such parameters as:<\/p>\n
Mineral Resources Economy\/Trade Biotic Resources Population\/Human
\nResources, etc Nations such as Nigeria can impact the globe positively
\nwhen things are handled properly. They may also affect the world
\nnegatively if things go wrong. It is not in the best interest of the U.S.
\nand indeed the international community to ignore Nigeria.
\n3. Killing of Christians in Nigeria<\/p>\n
Your invitation letter profusely highlighted the issues of the killing of
\nChristians in Nigeria, the last major incident being the recent killings
\nin Southern Kaduna in Kaduna state, and I do not need to elaborate on
\nthat. The challenge is how do we stop that from recurring.<\/p>\n
How do we ensure that Christians and Muslims cohabit peacefully in Nigeria
\nand practice their religions freely without discrimination, molestation
\nand killings? One school of thought believes that these killings reoccur
\nbecause of impunity.<\/p>\n
Security and law enforcement bodies unfortunately have a history of
\nfailing to apprehend the culprits of previous killings and disturbances
\nand punishing according to the law.<\/p>\n
Such impunity has emboldened and encouraged persons with such tendencies.
\nIndeed, though there have been over 10 major incidences of ethnic and
\nreligious conflagration in the frontline state of Kaduna since 1979, there
\nhas only ever been one incidence where the authorities took action,
\naccording to the law, to punish the culprits of the disturbances.<\/p>\n
This was in 1992, after the Zangon Kataf riots in which the official death
\ntoll was 300.<\/p>\n
The military administration of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida
\nconstituted the Civil Disturbances Special Tribunal to try arrested
\npersons and a total of 14 persons were sentenced to death, although the
\nBabangida administration commuted the sentences to five years
\nimprisonment. Within the period I served as a Vice President and later as
\nPresident, it became very clear to me that if the issue of religion is not
\nhandled properly, the unity of the country would be in great jeopardy.<\/p>\n
Religious and other ethnic issues were becoming a stumbling block towards
\nsocietal cohesion and economic development. I therefore set up a National
\nConference with the mandate of looking into all the grey areas militating
\nagainst the peace, progress and development of Nigeria. On the issue of
\nreligion, let me quote unedited the position of the 2014 National
\nConference.<\/p>\n
Nigeria has over 350 ethnic nationalities and that: \u2018\u201cThis multi-ethnicity
\nhas been compounded by pronounced religious differences, exploited usually
\nfor political considerations by avid political classes in contexts of
\nextreme poverty and very low educational development among the mass of the
\npopulace.<\/p>\n
Whereas Nigeria is supposed to be a secular state,\u201d one nation bound in
\nfreedom, peace and unity\u201d, the prevalence of religiosity and its related
\nnepotism at all levels, has effectively undermined the objectivity which
\nsecularity would have ordinarily imbued in national politics.\u201d The
\nConference further stated that: \u201cIn view of the fact that religion plays a
\nvital role in many aspects of our national life especially in the aspect
\nof national security and national unity, it is highly imperative that it
\nbe singled out from other fundamental rights and given a special attention
\nvia the creation of an Equity Commission whose sole mandate will be to
\nfocus on religious rights and their promotion.<\/p>\n
This is in line with best global practices as many advanced democracies
\nhave special legal and institutional arrangements for some very sensitive
\naspects of their national life. Examples of such specialized agencies from
\nother countries are presented below:
\na) In the United Kingdom, despite the existence of the UK Equal
\nOpportunities Commission (UK-EOC), a Commission for Racial Equality
\n(created by the Race Relations Act, 1976) which existed alongside UK-EOC
\nfor many years. This was done because at the time, issues of racial
\ndiscrimination were very sensitive and crucial that it was thought
\nnecessary to create a special commission for it. b) In the United States,
\ndespite the existence of the US State Department Bureau of Democracy,
\nHuman Rights and Labor, it has other special human rights enforcement
\nagencies created to promote specific rights. One of such agencies is the
\nEqual Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) which is a federal law
\nenforcement agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination.
\nThe EEOC investigates discrimination complaints based on an individual\u2019s
\nrace, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, genetic
\ninformation, and retaliation for reporting, participating in, and\/or
\nopposing a discriminatory practice. c) Canada has a similar arrangement to
\nthat of the United States. The Canadian Human Rights Act has long
\nprohibited discrimination on the basis of gender,COM FINAL CONFERENCE
\nREPORT PAGE 433 race, ethnicity, and certain other grounds. In 1986, the
\nCanadian government passed the Employment Equity Act which was meant to
\nprotect certain restricted vulnerable categories of persons. The Canadian
\nHuman Rights Act continues to be in force alongside the Employment Equity
\nAct. d) In Australia, there are 3 different commissions addressing the
\nissues of human rights, namely: Human Rights Commission,
\nAnti-Discrimination Commission and Equal Opportunities Commission\u201d I
\ntotally agreed with the 2014 National Conference on the need to establish
\nthe Religious Equity Commission that will have powers to arrest and
\nprosecute those who contravene the law. If, as a nation, we do not kill
\nreligious persecution and extremism, then religious persecution and
\nextremism will kill Nigeria. The potential danger associated with the
\nlevel of conflicts going on across the country is so glaring that no sane
\nmind can ignore.<\/p>\n
Even before I set up the National Conference in 2014, my government took
\ncertain initiatives to end impunity and reorient the minds of Nigerians.
\nFirst was education. I established twelve conventional Federal
\nUniversities and two specialized universities. Nine of the twelve Federal
\nUniversities were located in those states in Northern Nigeria that
\npreviously did not have any Federal University. The Specialized Police
\nUniversity was located in Kano state, also in the North, bringing the
\ntotal number of universities I established in the North of Nigeria to ten.<\/p>\n
The Specialized Maritime University was located in the Niger Delta. In
\naddition to these, I also established 165 Almajiri elementary and high
\nschools in each of the nineteen states of Northern Nigeria to combine
\nIslamic education with Western education. In the area of law enforcement,
\nit was quite challenging, but we were determined.<\/p>\n
When the Boko Haram Islamic terrorists bombed St. Theresa\u2019s Catholic
\nChurch, Madalla, in Niger state of Nigeria on Christmas Day of 2011, I
\nphysically visited the scene of the bombing at which 44 people died on
\nSaturday the 31st of December 2011 and I promised Nigerians that those
\nresponsible for that heinous act would be brought to book. That promise
\nwas fulfilled on the 20th of December 2013 when Kabiru Umar, aka Kabiru
\nSokoto, was sentenced to life imprisonment after my administration
\ninvestigated that crime, identified him as the mastermind, arrested him
\nand diligently prosecuted him and some of his associates.<\/p>\n
Might I add that this was the first and only successful prosecution of a
\ncrime of deadly terrorism against a religious place of worship inspired by
\nreligious extremism since Nigeria\u2019s return to civil rule in 1999. Before
\nthen, my administration had also diligently carried out the first
\nsuccessful prosecution of terrorists of the Islamic extremist group, Boko
\nHaram, for another terror attack, but this time not in a place of worship
\nbut on the offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission also
\nin Madalla, Niger state, an act which led to the deaths of sixteen persons
\non April 8th, 2011. We were in the process of prosecuting Aminu Ogwuche,
\nthe mastermind of the April 14, 2014 Nyanya bombing in Nasarawa state
\nwhich killed 75 people but unfortunately that prosecution was ongoing as
\nat the time I left office in 2015.<\/p>\n
But the point I want to emphasize by citing these incidences is that my
\nadministration had the political will to halt impunity in Nigeria and that
\nis why killings due to religious extremism was localized to the Northeast
\nwith occasional killings in other zones of the North. And even in the
\nNortheast, we had rolled back the Islamic terrorist sect, Boko Haram, by
\nthe end of the first quarter of 2015 after we were able to get weapons to
\narm our military. The killings did not spread to the mainly Christian
\nsouth and I believe that the fight back against impunity by my
\nadministration was the main reason for this. Of course, there were other
\nreasons for this.<\/p>\n
For instance, through my personal reach out to the then President of the
\nChristian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, I was able to
\npersuade the Body of Christ in Nigeria not to engage in any retaliation or
\nreprisal killings.<\/p>\n
My job was made easier in this regards when the Christian Association of
\nNigeria saw a genuine desire on my part to bring religious extremists to
\nbook. Using the same approach with the head of the Muslim Ummah in
\nNigeria, His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, I was able to get the
\nmainstream of the Islamic faith to publicly condemn Islamic extremism in
\nNigeria.<\/p>\n
This was important to show that a clampdown on Islamic extremism was and
\nis not a clampdown on Islam. Going a step further, I worked through a body
\nknown as the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) to bring Christian
\nand Muslim leaders together so they could talk to each other not at each
\nother.<\/p>\n
To summarize on the issue of ethnic and religious conflicts, I recommend
\nthe establishment of the Religious Equity Commission, enforcement of our
\nlaws without fear or favor and maximum cooperation by all Nigerians
\nespecially our revered religious leaders and clerics.
\n4. The Niger Delta Question<\/p>\n
The issue of the Niger Delta is an issue of exploitation of natural
\nresources, economy and development. The complaints and restiveness is not
\nunique to the Niger Delta of Nigeria alone. In most African nations where
\nresources are domiciled in minority regions and the control of such
\nresources are in the hands of majority regions, such agitations are
\ncommonplace.<\/p>\n
The people in these regions feel that though they suffer from the
\nenvironmental hazards of the exploitation of the God given resources, they
\ndo not commensurately benefit from the exploitation of these resources. In
\nthe Niger Delta, these agitations predate Nigeria\u2019s existence in 1914. Oil
\npalm produce (palm oil and kernel) were major raw materials that fed the
\ngrowth of the Industrial Revolution in Europe, and they largely came from
\nthe Niger Delta. Various tribal kings and chiefs such as King Jaja of
\nOpobo and Nana Olomu, resisted British exploitation of these resources and
\nwere both arrested, deposed and exiled to the West Indies (King Jaja) and
\nthe Gold Coast (Nana) by the British Imperial Government as punishment for
\ntheir agitations.<\/p>\n
Let me add that the punitive measures against these kings did not end the
\nagitations. With the discovery of petroleum, in the Niger Delta, similar
\nagitations surfaced. On February 23, 1966, these agitations culminated in
\nthe declaration of the first secessionist state in post independent
\nNigeria, the Niger Delta Republic, proclaimed by Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro.
\nHis twelve day revolution was crushed by the Federal Government.<\/p>\n
It is instructive to note that Isaac Boro declared the Republic of the
\nNiger Delta a full year and three months before May, 1967 when then
\nColonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declared the secession of the Eastern
\nRegion to form the Republic of Biafra leading to the thirty month civil
\nwar. From the end of the civil war to date the Federal Government has come
\nup with many interventionist initiatives to pacify the Niger Delta.<\/p>\n
I was a pioneer staff and worked as an Assistant Director of Environmental
\nProtection at one of these early interventionist agencies called the Oil
\nMineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC), set up by the
\nmilitary administration of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. With the
\nadvent of democracy in 1999, then President Olusegun Obasanjo established
\nthe present body, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).<\/p>\n
The greatest stumbling block of these interventionist agencies was lack of
\ncontinuity, resulting from an over politicization of projects as each
\nsuccessive management awarded new contracts rather than continue with
\nthose awarded by their predecessors and as such, the Niger Delta is
\nlittered with many abandoned projects with very few completed projects to
\nshow for the huge monies spent. During the Obasanjo era, the Federal
\nGovernment, in line with our constitution and revenue laws, set aside 13%
\nof oil revenues to be paid as derivation funds to oil producing states and
\nshared on the basis of proportion of oil they produce.<\/p>\n
As a person from the Niger Delta, I can say that the 13% derivation has
\nbenefitted Niger Delta states and their people more than the
\ninterventionist agencies. For example, those who knew Akwa Ibom state
\nbefore the 13% derivation become law will agree that the derivation fund
\nhas changed the face of that state making it almost overnight one of the
\nmost developed states in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
The same is true with other oil producing states though with varying
\ndegrees of development. From the foregoing, the only option that will
\nsolve the agitation in the Niger Delta is true and Fiscal Federalism as
\npracticed in the United States from whom we copied the Presidential model
\nof government.<\/p>\n
States should be allowed to exploit their natural resources as they deem
\nfit and pay adequate taxes to the Federal Government.<\/p>\n
This is also the position of the 2014 National Conference. The Conference
\nstrongly recommended the adoption of Fiscal Federalism as the only panacea
\nto these agitations and other challenges.
\n5. The Role of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation<\/p>\n
Resolving both the religious crises and the Niger Delta question requires
\na new legal framework, thus the Federal Government and the National
\nAssembly have major roles to play.<\/p>\n
The Goodluck Jonathan Foundation working with Elder statesmen and Civil
\nSociety groups can, through dialogue and advocacy, encourage religious
\nleaders, traditional rulers, youth groups and women groups to participate
\nin the formulation of a new legal framework.<\/p>\n
They will also be impressed upon to abide by these laws when put in place.
\nWithout a new legal framework, successes by any advocacy group will at
\nbest be transient, it will not endure. Also, the military crackdown in the
\nNiger Delta will not end the agitation there.<\/p>\n
It will have the opposite effect of provoking the youths which will cause
\nthem to seek to acquire sophisticated weapons to defend themselves and
\ntheir communities.<\/p>\n
This may in turn lead to secessionist movements and the reincarnation of
\nthe Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro led revolution and the Biafran Civil War. The
\nFederal Government and the international community must work to avoid
\nthis.<\/p>\n
6. Global Terror and Boko Haram in Nigeria<\/p>\n
The Boko Haram Islamic terrorist sect has been classified as the most
\ndeadly terror group in the world by the Global Terrorism Index.<\/p>\n
Herdsmen operating in and around Nigeria are listed as the fourth most
\ndeadly terror group.<\/p>\n
However, I do not intend to discuss global terror because it is a subject
\nwell known to all and the U.S. government has been working hard with
\nvarious governments to address these issues.<\/p>\n
My belief is that the day the U.S. government and the Russian government
\ndecide to work together, that will surely mark the beginning of the end of
\nglobal terror.
\n7. Conclusion<\/p>\n
In my capacity as head of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, I visited
\nformer Nigerian leaders to call for unity of purpose to fend off some of
\nthese challenges I have listed above.<\/p>\n
And finally today I am here, calling on this august body and the new
\nAmerican administration of President Donald J Trump, of whom we are very
\nconfident, to please work with the government and people of Nigeria by way
\nof capacity building and intelligence gathering and sharing and indeed in
\nany way possible to bring an end to religious extremism in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Mr. Chairman, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for giving
\nme the opportunity to share my ideas on these sensitive subject with you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has said that \u201cIf, as a nation, we do not kill religious persecution and extremism, then religious persecution and extremism will kill Nigeria.\u201d He also said that,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n