UK Parliament debates ‘freedom of belief crisis’ in Nigeria as Christian persecution report launched

‘A flourishing Nigeria, built on the common good, pluralism and universal freedoms, will be a blessing to the world, to Africa and to the UK,’ the UK Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion and Belief said.

The House of Commons debated the UK’s role in standing up for freedom of religion and belief in Nigeria on 13 January, in an adjournment debate called by David Smith, Labour MP for North Northumberland and the UK Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion and Belief.

David Smith MP said: “One fact should make the scale of the challenge clear: more Christians are killed each year in Nigeria for being Christians than in all other countries combined.”

He referred to the World Watch List report on countries where Christians are subject to persecution, which found that “Nigeria remains the country where more Christians are killed for their faith than all other countries put together”.

This figure is however distorted by the heavy overlap between religious, ethnic, and sociopolitical identity in Nigeria and the conflation of different conflicts that occur for different reasons, research by AP News suggests, drawing on data from the The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED).

This means that conflict may appear to happen across religious lines even when its main drivers are civic and economic, with people identified as Christian being attacked in disputes over land, power, and status, particularly in farmer-herder conflict in the Middle Belt, where mobile herders are Fulani Muslims and sedentary farmers tend to be Christians.

In Northern Nigeria, where Boko Haram is active, Christians are a small minority of the population and therefore more victims of the terrorist attacks are Muslim.

The World Watch List, which is produced by Christian organisation Open Doors, would be launched in Parliament the following day. It ranked Nigeria 7th for Christian persecution, after North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Eritrea, and Syria.

At the launch, parliamentarians were encouraged to “raise freedom of belief issues in the chamber” and to “be a voice for those around the world who have no voice”.

David Smith said in the debate on 13 January that the “freedom of belief crisis” in Nigeria is a “multifaith crisis” that affects not just Christians, because “all freedom of belief advocates know that persecution of one group invites persecution of others”: “The freedom of religion and belief crisis in Nigeria is persistent and entrenched, with violence in the North and the Middle Belt a way of life for Christians, Hausa Muslims, those of traditional belief systems, humanists and others.”

He said that as well as being about “violence”, “Nigeria’s freedom of religion and belief crisis is also about legal suppression of freedoms at the state level. Some federal state legal systems have been manipulated by some politicians and other public officials in order to impose so-called blasphemy and apostasy offences, despite section 38 of the Nigerian federal constitution guaranteeing freedom of religion and of conscience.”

The members of Parliament discussed how the UK should respond to the situation, including through its economic relationships with Nigeria.

David Smith said: “The Government are committed to a values-based foreign policy. Our consciences will not let us ignore the suffering of anyone denied dignity, agency and freedom. When people ask, ‘Why do you care about something like this in Nigeria?’ our response is, ‘How could we not?’

“I am pleased to support the Government, which have moved to address suffering as far and wide as possible. There is a false dichotomy in whether to advance freedoms or build economic relationships; we should have a holistic relationship with all partner countries around the world.

“Nigeria is booming, with a population of 240 million that will keep growing for years to come. In the UK, we have 270,000 Nigerian-born residents, who make a dynamic contribution to our economy, society and country. A flourishing Nigeria, built on the common good, pluralism and universal freedoms, will be a blessing to the world, to Africa and to the UK.

“We in the UK have a rich history of experiencing and rejecting religious intolerance that we can share in humility, hopefully, with others. We had civil wars and riots. Those riots became debates, debates became freedoms, and those freedoms led to flourishing. The hallmark of freedom is wanting freedom for others.

“Every Christian kidnapped, every mosque bombed and every atheist imprisoned risks the continuation of the cycle of ethno-religious conflict, and a diminishing of all that Nigeria can be. No one wants that and I am pleased that the UK Government are serious about freedom of religion or belief in Nigeria.”

Dr Al Pinkerton MP asked to what extent are there are intersections with other sources of conflict such as terrorism, resource competition, and climate change and how they might be disentangled from “religious intolerance”.

David Smith acknowledged the “other factors in the equation, whether it is competition over land in the Middle Belt of Nigeria, the climate change that leads to it, or other forms of identitarian conflict and competition for resources”, and added, “it is also true that there is a specifically religious dimension, and at times a political dimension, to the persecution.”

David Smith said in the debate that the “long line of attacks, violence and atrocities”, with a slow security response from the Nigerian military, made it “unsurprising” that the US designated Nigeria a country of particular concern in October, which was followed by strikes launched on Christmas Day by the American Government on the Lakurawa militants in Sokoto state.

However, he also said to The Tablet: “It’s important to avoid language that risks making the ethnoreligious divisions more entrenched”, noting that none of the parliamentarians participating in the debate had condoned Donald Trump’s controversial framing of the conflict as a “Christian genocide”, disputed both by human rights groups and some Nigerian clergy.

David Smith told The Tablet that the UK “must continue to call for freedom of belief in Nigeria” while focusing especially on encouraging “interreligious dialogue” and building “social resilience”.

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