This week, a high-level State Department convoy will arrive in Nigeria to discuss combating Boko Haram – and the forthcoming delivery of fighter jets that will aid the Nigerian government in this fight. However, talk of weapons and Boko Haram alone would be a missed opportunity. The trip to Nigeria also carries a chance to convey the importance of protecting religious minorities from persecution and threats.
Deadly crimes are being committed against Christian farmers in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, and the country’s government is looking the other way. If the State Department misses this opportunity, it will set the U.S. on a path to a moral minefield, and effectively abandon Nigeria’s persecuted Christians, who are under attack.
The Fulani, an ethnic group comprised mainly of Muslim herders, has been behind the vast majority of these attacks. The Nigerian government has dismissed them as minor skirmishes. They are nothing of the sort. Between the ongoing violence in the Middle Belt and the terrorist attacks carried out by Boko Haram, more than 16,000 Nigerian Christians have been killed in the past 3 years, alone. Just this year, 2 priests were among 19 killed in an attack during a Catholic mass – that number does not include those who have died due to violence from practicing their religion.
Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, is a Fulani Muslim. That certainly doesn’t make him untrustworthy, but this does: He has done little, if anything, to stop the killings.
According to the Congressional Research Service, “The government has tolerated the violence, creating a culture of impunity that has emboldened Boko Haram and its sympathizers.” The report also noted that the Nigerian government took no significant action “to investigate and prosecute those responsible” for the violence against Christians.
In April, the Trump administration signed off on a deal that would allow the Nigerian government to buy 12 Tucano light fighter jets that would ostensibly be used to fight Boko Haram. The deal was a major triumph for Buhari, which even featured a Rose Garden photo-op with President Trump. Yet the Buhari administration’s current attitude towards Christian communities should give the State Department pause.
In theory, Buhari’s administration will use the fighter jets to fight Boko Haram. Despite its decreasing influence, Boko Haram is still embedded in the northeast, and still killing innocent people, including Christians. Attempts to stop the terror group haven’t always gone well: The Nigerian military mistakenly bombed a refugee settlement in early 2017, killing at least 115 civilians. Knowing what we know about the Nigerian government and their failure to protect Christians to date, the State Department would be remiss not to warn the Nigerians against the use of these weapons on Christian communities.
Buhari was initially hailed as a reformer. However, the Nigerian military he led for decades is rife with human rights abuses. In the Bama Hospital Camp, administered by the military as an aid site, women are often starved and raped by soldiers. People in the camp go without food and water, even though aid is pouring in from the U.S., the U.K., and France.
Too often these atrocities are overlooked as a focus on regional security trumps human rights and religious freedom concerns. Our relationship with Saudi Arabia offers another instructive case study. However, Nigeria is not in the same league as the Saudis. Buhari’s government depends on the United States to a greater degree than the Saudis do, and therefore the State Department should have more leverage in Nigeria this week.
Promoting U.S. exports is welcome, as is defense cooperation in vulnerable regions of the world. However, there is no amount of money that can justify senseless loss of innocent life. Any transactional benefits would pale in comparison to the moral and political costs of allowing religious genocide against Christians to continue, especially in an area of the world where the U.S. has influence over the governments in question.
This week, in Nigeria, an opportunity to stand up for religious liberty is right in front of us, and the Trump administration would be wrong not to take it.
Angela Morabito (@AngelaLMorabito) writes about politics, media, ethics, and culture. She holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Georgetown University.
