Kukah to US: Don’t redesignate Nigeria as country of concern — it’ll increase tensions

Matthew Kukah, the Catholic bishop of the Sokoto diocese, has urged the US government not to redesignate Nigeria as a country of particular concern (CPC).

Kukah spoke on Tuesday at the launch of the Aid to the Church in Need (ACIN) 2025 report on religious freedom in the world, held at the Augustinianum hall in Vatican City.

The CPC is a designation by the US government of any country that engages in “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom”.

Recently, US lawmakers have increasingly called on President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on Nigeria as a CPC owing to claims of Christian genocide in Nigeria.

Ted Cruz, a US senator, had proposed a bill that seeks to protect “persecuted” Christians in Nigeria.

Kukah said the ongoing initiatives to address the challenges and the alleged “persecution of Christians” would be undermined if Nigeria is redesignated as a CPC.

The Catholic bishop said Nigerians “feel vulnerable and unprotected irrespective of their faiths, ethnicity or social classes”.

He alleged that the administration of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari “marked the worst phase in the history of interfaith relations in Nigeria, especially relating to violence against Christians and their exclusion from power”.