‘You’re giving religious coloration to farmers-herders clashes’ FG reacts to US Special Watch List

The Federal Government has rejected the United States’ designation of Nigeria on its Special Watch List (SWL) as country that engages in severe religious persecution.

The government said there’s no basis for Nigeria to be placed on the list.

On Friday, December 20, 2019, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo announced in a statement that Nigeria and five other countries as countries that tolerate severe religious violations.

Reacting to this, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed in a statement on Sunday, December 22, 2019, said the US was misled by propaganda on farmer-herder conflicts and Boko-Haram insurgency in Nigeria.

The minister also said the United State concluded that Nigeria was religious intolerant country by giving religious coloration to farmer-herder clashes in the country.

Lai said Nigerians enjoy the freedom to practise their religion.

The minister said, “The deliberate effort to give religious coloration to the farmers-herders clashes and the Boko Haram insurgency, in particular, has undoubtedly helped to mislead the US into concluding that the government is doing little or nothing to guarantee religious freedom in the country,” he said.

“But, as we have always said, the farmers-herders clashes have nothing to do with religion but everything to do with environmental and socio-economic realities.

“The religious tag given to the clashes has no basis in fact, but is very convenient for those who will very easily give the dog a bad name just to hang it.

“On its part, the Boko Haram terrorists are extreme fanatics who do not subscribe to the tenets of any religion, in spite of their pretence to Islamic adherence.”