Challenges of Nigerian Christians and the Niger Delta Question: A Presentation by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Chairman of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation to the U.S. House Sub-Committee on Africa, February 1, 2017
Let me start by thanking Congressman,
Christopher H. Smith, Chairman U.S. House Sub-Committee on Africa,
Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations for
inviting me to share my views on the crisis facing Christians in Nigeria
today and the Niger Delta question. The U.S. Congress is a powerful
institution not just for good governance in the U.S. but also for global
peace and development. Over the years, the U.S. Congress has shown
consistent interest in African affairs and I thank you for this and for
showing interest in Nigeria.
Congressman Smith has personally visited
troubled spots in Nigeria and especially those geo-political zones that
are considered the frontline of ethnic and religious conflicts. He has
also visited the Niger Delta. I sincerely thank him for these efforts.
In your invitation letter, you
highlighted a number of very sensitive issues you wanted me to touch on.
I group all these issues under ‘Challenges Facing Nigerian Christians
and the Niger Delta Question’. A full discussion on even one of these
issues may take a minimum of two hours, but here, I am expected to be
very brief. I will therefore present a bird’s eye view, but when next
your committee visits Nigeria, even more detailed presentations will be
made by other stakeholders.
2. Nigeria and the World
I read a paper presented by Princeton N.
Lyman, a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, suggesting that Nigeria is
no longer strategic to U.S. interests in Africa and the world as it used
to be. Ambassador Lyman may have had valid reasons for such a
viewpoint, but I make bold to say that the relationship between the U.S.
and Nigeria has come a long way since Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa
Balewa’s State Visit to the U.S. in July of 1961 and that relationship
should not only endure, but be built upon.
Nigeria, as a nation, is relevant to the U.S. in my opinion especially when you consider such parameters as:
– Mineral Resources
– Economy/Trade
– Biotic Resources
– Population/Human Resources, etc
– Economy/Trade
– Biotic Resources
– Population/Human Resources, etc
Nations such as Nigeria can impact the
globe positively when things are handled properly. They may also affect
the world negatively if things go wrong. It is not in the best interest
of the U.S. and indeed the international community to ignore Nigeria.
3. Killing of Christians in Nigeria
3. Killing of Christians in Nigeria
Your invitation letter profusely
highlighted the issues of the killing of Christians in Nigeria, the last
major incident being the recent killings in Southern Kaduna in Kaduna
state, and I do not need to elaborate on that. The challenge is how do
we stop that from recurring. How do we ensure that Christians and
Muslims cohabit peacefully in Nigeria and practice their religions
freely without discrimination, molestation and killings?
One school of thought believes that
these killings reoccur because of impunity. Security and law enforcement
bodies unfortunately have a history of failing to apprehend the
culprits of previous killings and disturbances and punishing according
to the law. Such impunity has emboldened and encouraged persons with
such tendencies.
Indeed, though there have been over 10
major incidences of ethnic and religious conflagration in the frontline
state of Kaduna since 1979, there has only ever been one incidence where
the authorities took action, according to the law, to punish the
culprits of the disturbances. This was in 1992, after the Zangon Kataf
riots in which the official death toll was 300. The military
administration of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida constituted the
Civil Disturbances Special Tribunal to try arrested persons and a total
of 14 persons were sentenced to death, although the Babangida
administration commuted the sentences to five years imprisonment.
Within the period I served as a Vice
President and later as President, it became very clear to me that if the
issue of religion is not handled properly, the unity of the country
would be in great jeopardy. Religious and other ethnic issues were
becoming a stumbling block towards societal cohesion and economic
development. I therefore set up a National Conference with the mandate
of looking into all the grey areas militating against the peace,
progress and development of Nigeria.
On the issue of religion, let me quote
unedited the position of the 2014 National Conference. Nigeria has over
350 ethnic nationalities and that:
‘“This multi-ethnicity has been
compounded by pronounced religious differences, exploited usually for
political considerations by avid political classes in contexts of
extreme poverty and very low educational development among the mass of
the populace. Whereas Nigeria is supposed to be a secular state,” one
nation bound in freedom, peace and unity”, the prevalence of religiosity
and its related nepotism at all levels, has effectively undermined the
objectivity which secularity would have ordinarily imbued in national
politics.”
The Conference further stated that:
“In view of the fact that religion plays a vital role in many aspects of our national life especially in the aspect of national security and national unity, it is highly imperative that it be singled out from other fundamental rights and given a special attention via the creation of an Equity Commission whose sole mandate will be to focus on religious rights and their promotion. This is in line with best global practices as many advanced democracies have special legal and institutional arrangements for some very sensitive aspects of their national life. Examples of such specialized agencies from other countries are presented below:
“In view of the fact that religion plays a vital role in many aspects of our national life especially in the aspect of national security and national unity, it is highly imperative that it be singled out from other fundamental rights and given a special attention via the creation of an Equity Commission whose sole mandate will be to focus on religious rights and their promotion. This is in line with best global practices as many advanced democracies have special legal and institutional arrangements for some very sensitive aspects of their national life. Examples of such specialized agencies from other countries are presented below:
a) In the United Kingdom, despite the
existence of the UK Equal Opportunities Commission (UK-EOC), a
Commission for Racial Equality (created by the Race Relations Act, 1976)
which existed alongside UK-EOC for many years. This was done because at
the time, issues of racial discrimination were very sensitive and
crucial that it was thought necessary to create a special commission for
it.
b) In the United States, despite the
existence of the US State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights
and Labor, it has other special human rights enforcement agencies
created to promote specific rights. One of such agencies is the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) which is a federal law
enforcement agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination.
The EEOC investigates discrimination complaints based on an individual’s
race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, genetic
information, and retaliation for reporting, participating in, and/or
opposing a discriminatory practice.
c) Canada has a similar arrangement to
that of the United States. The Canadian Human Rights Act has long
prohibited discrimination on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, and
certain other grounds. In 1986, the Canadian government passed the
Employment Equity Act which was meant to protect certain restricted
vulnerable categories of persons. The Canadian Human Rights Act
continues to be in force alongside the Employment Equity Act.
d) In Australia, there are 3 different
commissions addressing the issues of human rights, namely: Human Rights
Commission, Anti-Discrimination Commission and Equal Opportunities
Commission”
I totally agreed with the 2014 National Conference on the need to
establish the Religious Equity Commission that will have powers to
arrest and prosecute those who contravene the law. If, as a nation, we
do not kill religious persecution and extremism, then religious
persecution and extremism will kill Nigeria. The potential danger
associated with the level of conflicts going on across the country is so
glaring that no sane mind can ignore.
Even before I set up the National
Conference in 2014, my government took certain initiatives to end
impunity and reorient the minds of Nigerians. First was education. I
established twelve conventional Federal Universities and two specialized
universities.
Nine of the twelve Federal Universities were located in those states
in Northern Nigeria that previously did not have any Federal University.
The Specialized Police University was located in Kano state, also in
the North, bringing the total number of universities I established in
the North of Nigeria to ten. The Specialized Maritime University was
located in the Niger Delta.
In addition to these, I also established
165 Almajiri elementary and high schools in each of the nineteen states
of Northern Nigeria to combine Islamic education with Western
education.
In the area of law enforcement, it was
quite challenging, but we were determined. When the Boko Haram Islamic
terrorists bombed St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, in Niger state
of Nigeria on Christmas Day of 2011, I physically visited the scene of
the bombing at which 44 people died on Saturday the 31st of December
2011 and I promised Nigerians that those responsible for that heinous
act would be brought to book.
That promise was fulfilled on the 20th
of December 2013 when Kabiru Umar, aka Kabiru Sokoto, was sentenced to
life imprisonment after my administration investigated that crime,
identified him as the mastermind, arrested him and diligently prosecuted
him and some of his associates.
Might I add that this was the first and
only successful prosecution of a crime of deadly terrorism against a
religious place of worship inspired by religious extremism since
Nigeria’s return to civil rule in 1999.
Before then, my administration had also
diligently carried out the first successful prosecution of terrorists of
the Islamic extremist group, Boko Haram, for another terror attack, but
this time not in a place of worship but on the offices of the
Independent National Electoral Commission also in Madalla, Niger state,
an act which led to the deaths of sixteen persons on April 8th, 2011.
We were in the process of prosecuting
Aminu Ogwuche, the mastermind of the April 14, 2014 Nyanya bombing in
Nasarawa state which killed 75 people but unfortunately that prosecution
was ongoing as at the time I left office in 2015.
But the point I want to emphasize by
citing these incidences is that my administration had the political will
to halt impunity in Nigeria and that is why killings due to religious
extremism was localized to the Northeast with occasional killings in
other zones of the North.
And even in the Northeast, we had rolled
back the Islamic terrorist sect, Boko Haram, by the end of the first
quarter of 2015 after we were able to get weapons to arm our military.
The killings did not spread to the
mainly Christian south and I believe that the fight back against
impunity by my administration was the main reason for this.
Of course, there were other reasons for
this. For instance, through my personal reach out to the then President
of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, I was
able to persuade the Body of Christ in Nigeria not to engage in any
retaliation or reprisal killings. My job was made easier in this regards
when the Christian Association of Nigeria saw a genuine desire on my
part to bring religious extremists to book.
Using the same approach with the head of
the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria, His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, I was
able to get the mainstream of the Islamic faith to publicly condemn
Islamic extremism in Nigeria. This was important to show that a
clampdown on Islamic extremism was and is not a clampdown on Islam.
Going a step further, I worked through a
body known as the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) to bring
Christian and Muslim leaders together so they could talk to each other
not at each other.
To summarize on the issue of ethnic and
religious conflicts, I recommend the establishment of the Religious
Equity Commission, enforcement of our laws without fear or favor and
maximum cooperation by all Nigerians especially our revered religious
leaders and clerics.
4. The Niger Delta Question
The issue of the Niger Delta is an issue
of exploitation of natural resources, economy and development. The
complaints and restiveness is not unique to the Niger Delta of Nigeria
alone. In most African nations where resources are domiciled in minority
regions and the control of such resources are in the hands of majority
regions, such agitations are commonplace.
The people in these regions feel that
though they suffer from the environmental hazards of the exploitation of
the God given resources, they do not commensurately benefit from the
exploitation of these resources.
In the Niger Delta, these agitations
predate Nigeria’s existence in 1914. Oil palm produce (palm oil and
kernel) were major raw materials that fed the growth of the Industrial
Revolution in Europe, and they largely came from the Niger Delta.
Various tribal kings and chiefs such as King Jaja of Opobo and Nana
Olomu, resisted British exploitation of these resources and were both
arrested, deposed and exiled to the West Indies (King Jaja) and the Gold
Coast (Nana) by the British Imperial Government as punishment for their
agitations. Let me add that the punitive measures against these kings
did not end the agitations.
With the discovery of petroleum, in the
Niger Delta, similar agitations surfaced. On February 23, 1966, these
agitations culminated in the declaration of the first secessionist state
in post independent Nigeria, the Niger Delta Republic, proclaimed by
Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro. His twelve day revolution was crushed by the
Federal Government. It is instructive to note that Isaac Boro declared
the Republic of the Niger Delta a full year and three months before May,
1967 when then Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declared the
secession of the Eastern Region to form the Republic of Biafra leading
to the thorty month civil war.
From the end of the civil war to date
the Federal Government has come up with many interventionist initiatives
to pacify the Niger Delta. I was a pioneer staff and worked as an
Assistant Director of Environmental Protection at one of these early
interventionist agencies called the Oil Mineral Producing Areas
Develoment Commission (OMPADEC), set up by the military administration
of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. With the advent of democracy in
1999, then President Olusegun Obasanjo established the present body, the
Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The greatest stumbling block of these
interventionist agencies was lack of continuity, resulting from an over
politicization of projects as each successive management awarded new
contracts rather than continue with those awarded by their predecessors
and as such, the Niger Delta is littered with many abandoned projects
with very few completed projects to show for the huge monies spent.
During the Obasanjo era, the Federal
Government, in line with our constitution and revenue laws, set aside
13% of oil revenues to be paid as derivation funds to oil producing
states and shared on the basis of proportion of oil they produce. As a
person from the Niger Delta, I can say that the 13% derivation has
benefitted Niger Delta states and their people more than the
interventionist agencies. For example, those who knew Akwa Ibom state
before the 13% derivation become law will agree that the derivation fund
has changed the face of that state making it almost overnight one of
the most developed states in Nigeria. The same is true with other oil
producing states though with varying degrees of development.
From the foregoing, the only option that
will solve the agitation in the Niger Delta is true and Fiscal
Federalism as practiced in the United States from whom we copied the
Presidential model of government. States should be allowed to exploit
their natural resources as they deem fit and pay adequate taxes to the
Federal Government. This is also the position of the 2014 National
Conference. The Conference strongly recommended the adoption of Fiscal
Federalism as the only panacea to these agitations and other challenges.
5. The Role of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation
Resolving both the religious crises and
the Niger Delta question requires a new legal framework, thus the
Federal Government and the National Assembly have major roles to play.
The Goodluck Jonathan Foundation working with Elder statesmen and Civil
Society groups can, through dialogue and advocacy, encourage religious
leaders, traditional rulers, youth groups and women groups to
participate in the formulation of a new legal framework. They will also
be impressed upon to abide by these laws when put in place.
Without a new legal framework, successes
by any advocacy group will at best be transient, it will not endure.
Also, the military crackdown in the Niger Delta will not end the
agitation there. It will have the opposite effect of provoking the
youths which will cause them to seek to acquire sophisticated weapons to
defend themselves and their communities. This may in turn lead to
secessionist movements and the reincarnation of the Isaac Jasper Adaka
Boro led revolution and the Biafran Civil War. The Federal Government
and the international community must work to avoid this.
6. Global Terror and Boko Haram in Nigeria
The Boko Haram Islamic terrorist sect
has been classified as the most deadly terror group in the world by the
Global Terrorism Index. Herdsmen operating in and around Nigeria are
listed as the fourth most deadly terror group. However, I do not intend
to discuss global terror because it is a subject well known to all and
the U.S. government has been working hard with various governments to
address these issues. My belief is that the day the U.S. government and
the Russian government decide to work together, that will surely mark
the beginning of the end of global terror.
7. Conclusion
In my capacity as head of the Goodluck
Jonathan Foundation, I visited former Nigerian leaders to call for unity
of purpose to fend off some of these challenges I have listed above.
And finally today I am here, calling on
this august body and the new American administration of President Donald
J Trump, of whom we are very confident, to please work with the
government and people of Nigeria by way of capacity building and
intelligence gathering and sharing and indeed in any way possible to
bring an end to religious extremism in Nigeria.
Mr. Chairman, distinguished ladies and
gentlemen, I thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my ideas
on these sensitive subject with you.
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