President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration and the Senate are to blame for the designation of Nigeria by the United States President, Donald Trump, as ‘Country of Particular Concern’.
Senator Ali Ndume, stated this on Saturday in Abuja, saying both the executive and legislative arms were complacent at the beginning of the imbroglio.
He said both the President and the Senate failed to proactively engage the United States government on the alleged persecution of Christians in Nigeria led to the development.
Ndume, who represents Borno South, recalled that he had earlier sponsored a motion in the Senate on “Christian genocide” in the country, saying the motion led to resolutions mandating the Nigerian government to engage the U.S. with verified facts and figures.
The Senator said the Tinubu administration and the Senate handled the allegation raised by US lawmaker, Riley Moore, with complacency, prior to Trump’s declaration.
Ndume, once the Senate Chief Whip, told the Federal Government to take urgent steps to engage the US government with facts and figures on the activities of terrorists organisation which he noted were blind to faith.
“I have alerted the government, I even moved a motion. Nigeria is a sovereign state, it isn’t about what the United States can do to us, but about the misconception and the ripple effects of classifying us as a country of concern.
“We should engage the American government by presenting facts and figures. By engaging the US government, we should demand that they hear the other side of the story from the Nigerian government and the Muslim community. Muslims have been killed too. The genocide isn’t against Christians but Nigerians generally,” he said.
