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.

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

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