How the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is misleading the world about Nigeria

Is John Kerry actually representing the United States or is he serving some incomprehensible interests?

Before the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry visited Nigeria last week, he placed his agenda on the table. With priority accorded to

corruption and security, the august visitor also wanted to discuss the state of the economy with Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari. This visit which was hailed as the last possible engagement by a major American official during the Obama administration came at the right time; a dire period in Nigeria’s fragile democracy, where cries of hardship by a frustrated populace have replaced the national anthem. The visits also was billed to solidify a bilateral affiliation between the two countries after a period of strained relations.

Ordinarily, a top-ranking American diplomat visiting Nigeria would be expected to make as a first destination, the commercial hub of Lagos (the former Nigeria’s capital), or the seat of the government in Abuja. However that was not the case with this visit. Kerry headed straight to the city of Sokoto; predominantly Muslim and an important seat of Islamic learning situated in the extreme northwest of Nigeria

Kerry’s visit to Sokoto confirmed the devotion accorded to the Sultan of Sokoto—Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, as a strategic partner of the U.S., regarding sociopolitical issues in Nigeria and neighboring Muslim regions. The visit soon provoked a controversy. For instance, a prominent Christian group, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) voiced out their condemnation, accusing Kerry of being “discriminatory and divisive.” Another organization, the Foundation for Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Crusade also expressed concerns that the United States was fueling ethnic and religious tensions in Nigeria by supporting northern leaders.

These organizations might be right in their discontentment of Kerry’s itinerary. In a country divided since its independence in 1960 over ethnic and religious differences, it was awfully intolerant for Kerry to have flown in, socialized with Muslim clerics and winged off. He was in Nigeria on Monday and Tuesday, and was hosted by the Sultan of Sokoto, the most senior Islamic cleric in the country. He also met with 19 governors of Nigeria’s northern states and held talks with President Muhammadu Buhari, who is also a Muslim.

CAN president, Reverend Supo Ayokunle, said Kerry’s visit showed a “lack of respect for the heterogeneous nature of Nigeria” and favored the country’s Muslim population to the detriment of the Christian community.” Proponents of the regime however differ, praising Kerry’s visit to the Muslim region as an effective partnership strategy in strengthen America’s ongoing battle with Islamist extremism. The sultan is believed to have much leverage with Nigerian Muslims and was seen as the appropriate channel to get the U.S. message across in fighting terror.

Most observers believe that Nigerian Christians are under siege and are the major victims of a supposedly secular governmental system that is currently undermined by the regime. But during his visit, Kerry spent more time showering praises to his Muslim host rather than reveal his country’s position in assisting Nigeria with corruption, security, and state of their ailing economy. According to Ayokunle, Kerry’s actions speak volume; “his body language were very divisive.”

This is not the first time Kerry has crashed dabbling into a delicate Nigeria’s politics. Earlier in 2015 – during a heated Nigeria’s presidential campaign, Kerry inappropriately criticized the incumbent regime of President Goodluck Jonathan for an election postponement that was legally justified. He had impolitely issued a release expressing his deep disappointment about the postponement, urging that the Nigerian government not use security concerns as a pretext for impeding the democratic process.

PIC.-3.-U.S.-SECRETARY-OF-STATE-JOHN-KERRY-VISITS-SOKOTO — Kerry and the Sultan (Center). With Nigeria’s current governance predicament; the first major question would be, when has the Sultan become the country’s spokesperson on matters of corruption, security, the state of the economy? If the Sultan was a force in coordinating fights against terrorism and sectarian violence, why is Northern Nigeria still in such a security mess?

Unfortunately for Kerry, the postponement was later vindicated. From all valuations, there was no way the election could have been held with the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru M. Jega admitting to poor supervision, and process unpreparedness.

Kerry was also criticized for overreaction – acting without adequate information from reliable agencies from the United States monitoring the developments. For example, shortly after Kerry’s release, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), a United States nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide in collaboration with International Republican Institute (IRI) issued their report contradicting the secretary’s position on the issue.

This time, again, Kerry may have misled America with his senseless Nigeria’s visit. He may have goofed in his misguided Sokoto adventure. With Nigeria’s current governance predicament; the first major question would be, when has the Sultan become the country’s spokesperson on matters of corruption, security, the state of the economy? If the Sultan was a force in coordinating fights against terrorism and sectarian violence, why is Northern Nigeria in such a security mess?

If Kerry was serious about using traditional or religious rulers to boost his Nigeria’s security agenda, he could have visited the Chiefs in the Delta region also, where pollution perpetrated by major United States oil companies have ravaged many communities; and where government forces have been engaging local militants in bloody battles. Kerry also forgot to visit the Religious leaders or historically prominent chiefs in the Southern zones where the Fulani herdsmen armed by the regime destroy farmlands, and communities; and fatally attack individuals and families at will with sophisticated weapons.

The fact is that Kerry does not get it. His visit contradicted the very U.S. policy he endorsed. Earlier this month, the U.S. government through Kerry’s own office placed a danger alert on 20 States in Nigeria over security fears in the affected areas, claiming a lack of confidence in the Nigerian Army – to guarantee the safety of its citizens. The states affected were; Adamawa, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Edo, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara.

With these states including those in the South-South and South-East, why does Kerry think that a visit on security with just the Sultan of Sokoto, and then all Northern governors were appropriate? How would Kerry’s visit to Sokoto solidify a bilateral relationship between Nigeria and United States? Is John Kerry actually representing the United States or is he serving some incomprehensible interests?

♦ Author, Anthony Obi Ogbo, Ph.D. is the publisher of Houston-based International Guardian.

Why John Kerry Visited Nigeria’s Sultan of Sokoto

During his visit, Kerry commended Abubakar for his role in promoting religious tolerance in Nigeria; he tweeted "Great to visit Sokoto - a place of faith, tolerance & scholarship. Honored to be hosted by Sultan Abubakar." — John Kerry during his visit. He commended Abubakar for his role in promoting religious tolerance in Nigeria, and tweeted “Great to visit Sokoto – a place of faith, tolerance & scholarship. Honored to be hosted by Sultan Abubakar.”

When a top-ranking American diplomat visits Nigeria, one might imagine that their first destination would be the commercial hub of Lagos or the seat of the government in Abuja.

But when U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry touched down in Africa’s biggest Muslim country, he did so in Sokoto, a relatively small state that is closer to Niamey, the capital of neighboring Niger , than to Lagos.

Kerry’s visit on Tuesday highlighted the esteem in which the Sultan of Sokoto—currently Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, the 20th man to hold the office—is held as a strategic partner by the U.S., particularly in the battle against Islamist extremism in Nigeria and the wider West African region

During his visit, Kerry commended Abubakar for his role in promoting religious tolerance in Nigeria. The Sultan of Sokoto is the highest position of authority in mainstream Islam in Nigeria, and Abubakar thus has a key role in influencing a large proportion of Nigeria’s Muslim population, which numbers as many as 77 million. But to some Muslims and those of other faiths, including Christians, the Sultan is a divisive figure whose presence is a symbol of the internal ethnic and religious tensions in Africa’s most populous country.

The history of the position stretches back more than two centuries to the early 19th century and the establishment of the Sokoto caliphate by Usman dan Fodio. Millions of Muslims were united under the caliphate’s banner, and every Sultan of Sokoto is a descendant of Fodio. (The current sultan is the son of Siddiq Abubakar III, who in turn was the grandson of Mu’azu, one of Fodio’s grandsons.) The caliphate fell in the early 20th century to British colonialists, who retained the title of Sultan of Sokoto in what was then-called the Northern Nigeria Protectorate, and was later joined to its southern counterpart to become the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria in 1914.

The sultan is the head of the Qadiriyya Sufi order and is considered the most senior of Nigeria’s Muslim leaders, ahead of the Emir of Kano—currently Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who heads up the Tijaniyyah order. The sultan is also the head of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, a body that the government consults on matters of religion. According to Sola Tayo, an associate fellow at Chatham House’s Africa Program, the sultan “sits comfortably” with the federal government, currently led by President Muhammadu Buhari, without having an ostensibly political role.

One of the key tests of the sultan’s role in recent years has been the Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria. The group emerged in 2002, preaching a radical brand of Islam, and eventually took up arms against the government in 2009. Following an attack by Boko Haram on government buildings and police stations in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, Nigeria’s security forces brutally repressed the group, killing hundreds. The founder, Mohammed Yusuf, was captured but died in custody, with Nigerian police claiming he tried to escape, but others speculating that he was extrajudicially executed.

While he has since condemned the group as un-Islamic, the sultan’s first public comment on the group was to criticize the military’s heavy-handedness in dealing with it. “We cannot solve violence with violence,” Abubakar said in 2011.

“He’s advised the government not to treat every Muslim in the northeast like they’re a Boko Haram sympathizer, which is a very mainstream school of thought,” says Tayo. “You don’t go around antagonizing communities and encouraging the military to violate human rights all over the place.”

The sultan is still viewed with suspicion by some Christians and Kerry’s visit was condemned as “divisive” by the Christian Association of Nigeria, which questioned why the U.S. diplomat did not visit Christian leaders or meet with governors of the southern states, where the majority of the Christian population lives.

The sultan has been a moderate voice in promoting harmonious relations between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, where the population is split almost evenly between the two religions. Abubakar has affirmed Nigeria’s status as a “multi-religious country” that cannot be subjected to Islamization and has reportedly encouraged mixed Christian-Muslim marriages as a means of stemming interreligious conflict.

But he is still viewed with suspicion by some Christians and Kerry’s visit was condemned as “divisive” by the Christian Association of Nigeria, which questioned why the U.S. diplomat did not visit Christian leaders or meet with governors of the southern states, where the majority of the Christian population lives.

While Nigeria’s Muslims are mostly Sunni, there is a small but sizeable Shiite minority. Shiites do not tend to view the Sultan of Sokoto as a religious authority but Abubakar made a point of speaking up for the minority community following clashes between the Nigerian Army and members of the country’s main Shiite grouping, the Islamic Movement in Nigeria. A judicial inquiry found in August that the army killed almost 350 Shiites during clashes in the northern city of Zaria in December 2015, also arresting the group’s leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, who remains in custody.

Abubakar warned following the violence that the military crackdown bore a striking resemblance to the circumstances surrounding Boko Haram at the time of Yusuf’s death. “The history of the circumstances that engendered the outbreak of militant insurgency in the past, with cataclysmic consequences that Nigeria is yet to recover from, should not be allowed to repeat itself,” the sultan said, a warning that would not please all Muslims in Nigeria, particularly the more hardline Sunnis. “Among a certain breed of Nigerian Muslim, anybody who speaks out in defense of Shiites is to be frowned upon,” says Tayo. “There are a lot of Nigerians in the more conservative strains of Islam who do not like the Shiites at all and think that the military did absolutely the right thing.”

The U.S. has made clear—in financial and military terms—its support for Nigeria’s battle against Boko Haram. The Nigerian militant group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in 2015—although splits have since emerged—and the U.S. is fully committed to wiping out ISIS’s influence wherever it springs up. For Tayo, Kerry’s visit—besides being “great PR”—could be a means of keeping sweet an effective ally in America’s ongoing battle with Islamist extremism. “If the sultan has as much leverage with Nigerian Muslims as we know he does, then for someone like Kerry, it’s a great way to get the U.S. message across [by] using that conduit,” she says.

Nigeria: Christian Group Rails Against John Kerry for ‘Divisive’ Visit

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari (R) receives U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) upon his arrival in Abuja, Nigeria, on August 23. A Christian group has voiced its anger he didn't meet with any Christian representatives. Stringer/Reuters — Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari (R) receives U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) upon his arrival in Abuja, Nigeria, on August 23. A Christian group has voiced its anger he didn’t meet with any Christian representatives.
Stringer/Reuters

A prominent Christian group in Nigeria has accused U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry of being “discriminatory…and divisive” during a recent trip to the West African country.

Kerry was in Nigeria on Monday and Tuesday and was hosted by the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, the most senior Islamic cleric in the country. The U.S. diplomat also met with 19 governors of Nigeria’s northern states and held talks with President Muhammadu Buhari, who is also a Muslim.

The president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Reverend Supo Ayokunle, told reporters on Thursday that Kerry’s visit showed a “lack of respect for the heterogenous nature of Nigeria” and favored the country’s Muslim population “to the detriment of the Christian community,” Nigeria’s Premium Times reported.

Nigeria’s population is roughly split between a largely-Muslim north and majority-Christian south. Religious and ethnic violence are not uncommon, particularly in the middle belt of the country, where Fulani herdsmen—who are mostly Muslim—have clashed with farmers, some of whom are Christian. Christians have also been targeted by Boko Haram, a militant group that wishes to instal an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria. The insurgency has been largely circumscribed to the north of the country.

“There’s a siege on Christians [in Nigeria]. Kerry, his actions speak volume[s], his actions [and] body language were very divisive,” said Ayokunle.

The U.S. Department of State had said ahead of the trip that reinforcing Nigeria’s counterterrorism efforts were a priority of Kerry’s trip, and the diplomat spoke in Sokoto about the importance of religious tolerance in countering extremist ideologies.

Boko Haram has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 2 million during a seven-year insurgency. The U.S. has backed regional efforts to fight the insurgent group—which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group (ISIS)—sending funds, military advisors and armored vehicles to the region.

Buhari was elected in 2015 and replaced former president Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian.

John Kerry Warns Nigerian Military on Human Rights Abuses

SOKOTO, Nigeria — Secretary of State John Kerry issued a carefully worded warning on Tuesday to Nigeria’s military against committing human rights abuses as it goes about battling the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

Nigeria’s military has long been dogged by evidence that it has killed civilians, tortured prisoners and, more recently, detained mothers, children and other victims who had been kidnapped by Boko Haram.

“It is understandable in the wake of terrorist activity, some people are tempted to crackdown on everyone and anyone who could theoretically pose some sort of a threat,” Mr. Kerry told a group of religious leaders and politicians during a visit to Nigeria on Tuesday. “I caution against that today. Extremism cannot be defeated through repression.”

Worries about human rights abuses have in the past undercut Nigerian efforts to buy American weapons they say they need to defeat Boko Haram. Besides abuses tied to its fight against Boko Haram, activists have accused the military of gunning down at least 300 members of a Shiite Muslim sect in the northern city of Zaria without justification.

Relations between Nigeria and the United States have grown warmer under President Muhammadu Buhari, who was elected last year. American surveillance drones based in Cameroon now fly missions over parts of Nigeria where Boko Haram is active.

“They actually teach girls how to hold a bomb under their armpits so that the explosives remain steady,” Mr. Kerry said. “We might as well ask how anyone could be brainwashed into such atrocities, but because the children are so young and because the abuse that they suffer is so great, even brave souls can be broken.”

Mr. Kerry’s comments came as the Nigerian military said on Tuesday that airstrikes had killed and wounded several top Boko Haram commanders in the Sambisa Forest in the country’s northeast, where militants have been hiding for months.

Among the wounded was Abubakar Shekau, who took the helm of the group after the death of its founder in 2009, according to Col. Sani Usman, a military spokesman. The military’s attack took place on Friday.

At least three other top commanders were killed in “the most unprecedented and spectacular air raid,” the military said in a news release.

The military has claimed to have killed Mr. Shekau before. Leaders of the militant group are thought to be hiding deep in the forest. Reports of deaths or injuries to commanders were impossible to confirm independently.

As Kerry visits Nigeria, air force says top Boko Haram fighters killed

By Lesley Wroughton | SOKOTO, Nigeria/

SOKOTO, Nigeria Nigeria’s air force said it had killed a number of senior Boko Haram fighters and possibly their overall leader, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pledged to consider ways to ramp up military assistance to Nigeria to defeat the militant group.

Government planes attacked the Islamist group inside the Sambisa forest in its northeast heartland on Friday, the air force said, adding that it had only just confirmed details of the impact of the raid.

“Their leader, so called ‘Abubakar Shekau’, is believed to be fatally wounded on his shoulders,” the statement by military spokesman Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman added, without going into details on the source of its information.

The Obama administration has paid close attention to the fight against the militant group which has declared allegiance to Islamic State and destabilized a whole region by attacking Nigeria’s neighbors.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari did not address the reported air raid on the militants and Kerry did not raise it in their meeting in Abuja, a senior State Department official said. “It didn’t come up,” the official said in an interview, “I don’t think (Buhari) has enough information and we didn’t have enough information to raise it.”

On his first stop in the remote northern city of Sokoto, the top U.S. diplomat said the struggle against Boko Haram would succeed only if it tackled the reasons why people join militant groups and gained the public’s trust.

“It is understandable that, in the wake of terrorist activity, some are tempted to crack down on anyone and everyone who could theoretically pose some sort of threat. But extremism can’t be defeated through repression or fear,” he said.

U.S. PLANES

Nigeria has been pushing the United States to sell it aircraft to take on Boko Haram – a group that emerged in northeast Borno region seven years ago. The militants have killed an estimated 15,000 people in their fight to set up an Islamist state.

Under Nigeria’s last president, Goodluck Jonathan, the United States had blocked arms sales and ended training of Nigerian troops partly over human rights concerns such as treatment of captured insurgents.

But the new administration argues its human rights record has improved significantly enough to lift the blockade.

The senior State Department official said there was now a recognition by the Nigerian military of the need to pay attention to human rights. “While they are not perfect, they are conscious” of the issue, the official added.

In May, U.S. officials told Reuters that Washington wanted to sell up to 12 A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft to Nigeria in recognition of Buhari’s reform of the country’s army. Congress needs to approve the deal.

In the meeting with Buhari at the sprawling presidential villa, Kerry promised to look at ways to ramp up military cooperation with Nigeria to “bring this fight to a close,” the State Department official said, adding that the militant group no longer held any territory in the north.

Kerry “made very, very strong commitments to the (Nigerian) government that we are going to look at what we can do differently,” the official said, adding that the package for the aircraft was still being considered and needed congressional approval.

“We are working with (Nigeria) to make sure they can afford it, and they know how to use” the aircraft, the official added.

There was no immediate reaction from Boko Haram, which communicates with the media only by videos. The military has reported the death of Boko Haram’s Shekau in the past, only to have a man purporting to be him appear later, apparently unharmed, making video statements.

There have been recent signs of rifts between at least parts of Boko Haram and Islamic State. The global militant organization announced a new leader for what it described as its West African operations this month – an account that Abubakar Shekau appeared to contradict in a later video message.

US Top Diplomat Kerry to Visit Nigeria Amid Warming Relations

FILE - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry gets off his plane upon his arrival at Rome's Ciampino airport, Feb. 1, 2016. Corruption and security will top the agenda as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visits Nigeria this week. — FILE – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry gets off his plane upon his arrival at Rome’s Ciampino airport, Feb. 1, 2016. Corruption and security will top the agenda as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visits Nigeria this week.

LAGOS — Corruption and security will top the agenda as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visits Nigeria this week.

Kerry also is expected to discuss the state of the economy with Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari during his trip to the capital, Abuja, and the northern city of Sokoto.

The visit, likely the last by a major American official during the Obama administration, comes as the two countries have gradually been stepping up their cooperation after a period of strained relations.

“The relationship remains, sort of, near or at… a high water mark in recent history,” said Matthew Page, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

A rift opened between the two countries during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Nigerian officials complained the U.S. wasn’t supplying them with weapons they needed to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in the country’s northeast, while American officials said they worried the military would use U.S. arms to carry out human rights abuses.

Boko Haram remains one of Nigeria’s top security challenges. The Islamist group has killed about 20,000 people and displaced as many as 2.7 million.

Since Buhari took office, the U.S. has increased its security commitments to Nigeria, despite continued allegations by rights groups of human rights abuses by Nigerian soldiers.

The U.S. has deployed drones to neighboring Cameroon to hunt for Boko Haram fighters in Nigeria, and also has stationed a small group of troops in Maiduguri, according to a senior military official who spoke on condition of anonymity. That Nigerian city has been repeatedly attacked by Boko Haram and is at the center of the fight against it.

Cooperation between the U.S. and Nigeria to track down looted funds has been stop-and-start in the past, but has grown better coordinated in recent months, Page said. “They haven’t really developed a deep, investigative cooperation or information sharing relationship,” Page said. “I think what we’re seeing, or what we have started seeing over the last year, is that relationship… pick up.”

During his campaign for president, Buhari promised to fight the corruption that is seen as one of the reasons that two-thirds of Nigerians live in poverty, even though the country is among Africa’s top economies.

Cooperation between the U.S. and Nigeria to track down looted funds has been stop-and-start in the past, but has grown better coordinated in recent months, Page said.

“They haven’t really developed a deep, investigative cooperation or information sharing relationship,” Page said. “I think what we’re seeing, or what we have started seeing over the last year, is that relationship… pick up.”

Kerry could use the visit to highlight steps the U.S. has taken against suspected fraudsters, Page said.

“He may announce that the U.S. has levied a handful of visa sanctions on individuals that were involved in corruption and vote rigging during the 2015 elections,” he said.

Another issue of concern is the state of Nigeria’s economy. It’s poised to enter a recession, due to a decline in the price of oil as well as a series of militant attacks on Nigeria’s infrastructure that have dropped the country’s oil production substantially.

It’s unlikely the U.S. will offer the types of infrastructural assistance — such as building stadiums, railways or bridges — European countries and China are known for, Page said.

The U.S. likely will offer only technical assistance, Page said, or help with getting money from international lenders.

Is John Kerry actually representing the United States or is he serving some incomprehensible interests?

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