Ted Cruz, Republican U.S Senator, says President Bola Tinubu’s government is “very unhappy” because he has raised the alarm over the killing of Christians in Nigeria and proposed legislation to designate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern.
Hosting Ayaan Hirsi, a Somali-born Dutch and American writer and activist on his podcast on Wednesday, Mr Cruz said the Tinubu government has been “very unhappy” over his campaign against the mass murder of Christians in Nigeria.
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“I will tell you, the government of Nigeria is very unhappy with me. They have decried by saying I introduced this legislation to designate them a Country of Particular Concern, and the government is very unhappy,” Mr Cruz said.
The U.S. lawmaker cited decades of Boko Haram terror attacks on churches and Christians in Nigeria, accusing political leaders of turning a blind eye to the issue.
“I’ve been very vocal, calling out the mass murder of Christians. About 50,000 Christians have been murdered in Nigeria since 2009. Over 20,000 churches and schools have been destroyed —burned to the ground. You have the Boko Haram and other Islamic terrorist groups targeting and persecuting Christians in particular,” Mr Cruz explained.
He added, “There are far too many government leaders who have turned a blind eye to what is happening, who have acquiesced to what is happening, who are enforcing either sharia law or blasphemy laws, and who facilitate the persecution of Christians.”
Ms Hirsi, who fled to the Netherlands in 1992 to escape a forced marriage, affirmed Mr Cruz’s position.
“Nigeria is the most important country; it has the largest population. What is going on in Nigeria? The Islamists are killing Christians, burning churches, and raping their women. They are invoking blasphemy laws,” she said.
Though Mr Tinubu has denied that there is genocide going on against the religious adherents, the Christian Association of Nigeria affirmed Mr Cruz’s position, urging the international community to intervene.
Mr Cruz has proposed a ‘Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act’ that would target government officials facilitating the murder of Christians and the implementation of “blasphemy laws”.
In a letter addressed to the U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio, Riley Moore, who represents West Virginia’s 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives, urged U.S. authorities to sanction Nigeria, citing “reports that corrupt cells of the Nigerian government may be complicit, and even directly involved, in some of these attacks”.