US EMBASSY EVACUATION, A YEAR AFTER CPC REMOVAL, REPRESENTS ANOTHER FAILED POLICY CALL

Dear Ambassador MBL,

US EMBASSY EVACUATION, A YEAR AFTER CPC REMOVAL, REPRESENTS ANOTHER FAILED POLICY CALL

I trust you are well as you gallantly hold the fort in Nigeria at a tense time. I am writing to elaborate on the last issue raised at our meeting which time didn’t allow for.

 The US embassy’s elevated terror threat warning and unprecedented mass evacuation from Abuja, highlights grave security deterioration and a serial policy failure, barely a year after the State Department removed Nigeria from the CPC list.

A Failed bombing of a US diplomatic compound and Foiled bombings of four churches nearby by Islamist terrorists were at least two immediate incidents that triggered the post-haste  departure of your diplomats from the largest US embassy in Africa. 

Ironically this happened almost a year after Secretary Blinken’s November 2021 visit to Abuja when he removed Nigeria’s prior designation as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for egregious religious persecution.

I am concerned that in addition to ignoring the plight of Nigeria’s persecuted Christians over decades, the US government apparently also glossed over attacks on Americans in Nigeria leading inexorably to the current unfortunate situation.

Prior to the bomb discovery incident, an American missionary was kidnapped by Muslim Fulani Herdsmen in Nigeria’s middlebelt who said they were offered $20,000 to abduct a white person. Yet, this was neither reported in the news or in alerts to Americans in country.

In 2020, US Navy Seals rescued US missionary Philip Walton from Nigeria (where he was taken by the Fulani group who abducted him in Niger) to be resold to ISWA pursuant to the existing regional operational collaboration between the Fulani and Boko Haram jihadists.

Ex-captive sex-slaves of ISWA confirmed to me that among their fellow hostages in the terror camps were women kidnapped in Chad and sold to Nigerian terrorists. 

The recent killing of the Alqaeda kingpin Al-Zawahiri by a U.S. drone in Afghanistan has likely increased the threat to Americans in Nigeria.

It will be recalled that ISWA executed 11 Nigerian Christians at Christmas in 2019 to avenge America’s killing of ISIS leader al-Baghdadi.

But whereas the former US administration promptly designated Nigeria a CPC in 2020 weeks after the rescue of Phillip Walton from his Muslim Fulani abductors, the current Biden administration appears set not to rename Nigeria a CPC despite evacuating the entire US embassy from an Islamist threat!

It is notable that American diplomats were present at both of the first suicide bombings by Boko Haram in the nation’s capital Abuja in 2011. Yet the State Department resisted efforts to designate Boko Haram a Foreign Terrorist Organization until November 13, 2013 when myself and victim Habila Adamu testified in the US Congress https://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/03/18/could-boko-haram-be-hillary-clintons-biggest-scandal-n199524

On this ninth anniversary of the belated FTO designation of Boko Haram,  I urge the Biden administration to redesignate Nigeria a CPC especially following its failure and inability to safeguard US interests from Islamist terrorists resulting in the precipitous and unprecedented mass evacuation of the US embassy in Nigeria’s history. It is high time for the US policy position to finally align with the facts.

The  Afghanistan-style evacuation is to be taken seriously as an indicator that rather than secure the nation, the Buhari administration has brought Nigeria to the verge of Talibanization even fleeing Nigeria for a two-week UK vacation in the height of the evacuations.

I urge the US government to take seriously our repeated concerns about religious extremism and persecution in Nigeria that has metastasized to the point that American personnel have now become Internationally Displaced Diplomats and to reinstate Nigeria’s CPC status. Americans have over the last dozen years been victims of both of Nigeria’s jihadi terrorists – Boko Haram and Fulani militia – once ranked first and fourth deadliest terrorist groups globally by the USG-funded Global Terrorism Index (GTI.)

The failure to designate and treat Boko Haram as the foreign global terror threat (FTO) that it was on time could arguably have resulted in the evacuation.

Similarly the failure to designate the Nigerian regime as an egregious persecutor (CPC) for its underwhelming actions against extremist groups has nailed the coffin of the next misconceived policy position and potentially portend more future risk to Americans.

Former US Ambassadors to Nigeria John Campbell led 20 others in a DOS letter to oppose an FTO designation of Boko Haram while Ambassador Howard Jeter joined me and hundreds of others in a White House petition to demand FTO designation. https://www.thedailybeast.com/hillarys-state-department-refused-to-brand-boko-haram-as-terrorists

Madame ambassador, you have an opportunity to be on the right side of history by supporting the reinstatement  of the CPC designation and thus help protect all – Nigerians and Americans alike.

You have earned plaudits for human rights in past posts. Nigeria is where you have the potential for greater impact and lasting legacy on human rights at the peak of your diplomatic career.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Have a happy thanksgiving!