Members of U.S. Congress, USCIRF Push to Designate Nigeria as Country of Particular Concern

Republican Sens. Ted Budd of North Carolina, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Josh Hawley of Missouri, and James Lankford of Oklahoma endorsed redesignating Nigeria in a Sept. 12 letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Budd posted on X.

Legislation is not likely to move forward until Congress settles an impasse over funding that has shut down the government for nearly a week. The State Department is expected to break its two-year moratorium on CPC designations later this year, likely in December. 

The last CPC designations were made by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in December 2023, when Blinken revoked Nigeria’s CPC designation that was put in place by then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2020. 

Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, introduced legislation in March calling for Nigeria’s redesignation “for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”

Similarly, the USCIRF also recommended the State Department designate Nigeria as a CPC in its latest update on religious freedom in the country in late July. 

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“Twelve state governments and the federal government enforce blasphemy laws, prosecuting and imprisoning individuals perceived to have insulted religion,” the USCIRF said in its report, adding: “Despite efforts to reduce violence by nonstate actors, the government is often unable to prevent or slow to react to violent attacks by Fulani herders, bandit gangs, and insurgent entities such as JAS/Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).”

The latest congressional effort to bring about the designation comes as testimonies of Nigerians kidnapped by jihadist Fulani herdsmen have revealed that hundreds of Christians are still being held by the Islamist group in the infamous Rijana Forest in the southern part of Nigeria’s Kaduna state, ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, reported on Oct. 1. 

Madalaine Elhabbal is a staff reporter for Catholic News Agency based at EWTN’s Washington, D.C., bureau. She has been published by CatholicVote and has also worked as foreign language assistant in France. She is a graduate of Benedictine College.