The United States Assistant Secretary of State, Africa, Ambassador Tibor
\nNagy has said that while the Fulani Herdsmen and Farmers conflicts in
\nNigeria has assumed religious coloration, the herdsmen have become much
\nmore radicalized.<\/p>\n
Ambassador Nagy made the assertion at a Ministerial summit to Advance
\nReligious Freedom, hosted by the U.S State Department in Washington DC.<\/p>\n
The America’s top diplomat for Africa was responding to queries from
\ninternational human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe.<\/p>\n
Mr. Ogebe had asked the Assistant Secretary of State whether the Trump
\nadministration was still towing the line of one of his predecessors
\nJohnny Carson who insisted that the conflict in Nigeria was “not
\nreligious.”<\/p>\n
He lamented the fact that while Africa was faced with the terror of
\nradical islamism from the Middle East, Africa was also buffeted from the
\nother side by western liberalism during which the prior administration
\nhad threatened to cut off aid if Africans did not subscribe to their
\nviews. Ogebe asked Ambassador Nagy if the position of the State
\nDepartment had changed under the current administration.<\/p>\n
While thanking the Assistant Secretary for hosting a session on Africa
\nper his recommendation following the non representation of Africa in
\nlast year’s Ministerial, Ogebe submitted that the real challenge to
\nReligious Freedom in sub Saharan Africa was “political correctness and
\nrefusal to admit realities on ground.” He said that there was adequate
\ndata on the situation in Nigeria but decried a situation where a US
\nagency wrongly reported reprisals by Christians after the St Ignatius
\nmassacre in Benue State. Ogebe queried why Nigeria had not been
\ndesignated a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) like Sudan and Eritrea.<\/p>\n
Responding, the Assistant Secretary said, “I can assure you that the
\nreligious component of the farmer v herder conflict in Nigeria is taking
\non a much more important factor than it has in the past. Now I will say
\none thing: that I think we need to accept about the farmer v herder
\nconflict. It is not uniquely Nigerian. It goes across the continent from
\nMauritania all the way through Sudan. Parts of it it’s Christian v
\nMuslim, parts of it is Muslim v Muslim, parts of it their ethnic
\ndimensions.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately I heard it said that the Fulani are becoming radicalized.
\nMore and more places, we absolutely see that. Another truth is, I don’t
\nthink anybody can argue with it, is that almost all of these conflicts
\nthere are multiple factors involved. And it starts- I guess it goes with
\nlack of opportunity, population growth, poor governance.. We can go
\nthrough the whole list. I would argue that issue number one – you have
\nto stop the violence because the poor people who are killed are dead
\nimmaterial of whether they’re killed because of their religion, their
\nethnicity, whatever. So we have to look at these things realistically.
\nAnd unfortunately we can’t deal with the whole conflict in one way.<\/p>\n
“Remember Joseph Stalin said very cynically that four deaths is a
\ntragedy, a million is a statistic. So we have to look at this really
\ncountry, by country, by country. And you know Mali is one thing and
\nNigeria is another thing, and look at all of the factors unfortunately
\nbecause of the complexity. The solution is not that complicated, because
\nif you give people economic rights, good governments, opportunity for
\njobs and a livelihood, then lo and behold miracles happen and they get
\nalong. You know, when I teach on Africa I tell my students that the one
\ncountry in the world where you have people who really, really- inside
\nthe same boundary – people who really don’t like each other, but they
\nget along great is Switzerland. Because they divide their riches instead
\nof their poverty. That’s why I’m so keen on really pushing for Africa’s
\nyoung people to have opportunities, so they can look past these
\ndifferences and we can get the continent back to the way it used to be –
\nwhen people did get along.”<\/p>\n
Ambassador Nagy did not address the other questions but a panelist from
\nthe Hudson Institute, Religious Freedom Lawyer, Nina Shea had also
\npointed out how the New York Times erroneously reported last year that
\nFulani Herdsmen were threatened by Nigerian Farmers.<\/p>\n
Also speaking at the event was Mariam Ibrahim, a Sudanese woman who was
\nsentenced to death for apostasy by marrying a Christian. Mrs Ibrahim
\nnarrated how the court postponed her execution for two years because she
\nwas pregnant till she finished nursing her baby. She said her baby saved
\nher life and ended up being the youngest American born into captivity
\nbefore her freedom was ultimately negotiated by the Pope.<\/p>\n
Last week’s Ministerial was billed as the largest human rights event in
\nthe world with over 1000 participants from 130 countries. British
\nex-Prime Minister Tony Blair was amongst key leaders who addressed the
\nsummit.<\/p>\n
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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n