{"id":77853,"date":"2025-11-01T20:42:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T20:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=77853"},"modified":"2025-11-01T20:42:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T20:42:24","slug":"tinubu-cpc-label-misrepresents-nigerias-true-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/11\/01\/tinubu-cpc-label-misrepresents-nigerias-true-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Tinubu: \u2018CPC Label Misrepresents Nigeria\u2019s True Identity\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

President Bola Tinubu has rejected the United States\u2019 re-designation of Nigeria as a \u201cCountry of Particular Concern\u201d (CPC), describing the label as a distortion of Nigeria\u2019s true religious identity.<\/p>\n

In a statement posted on his official X handle on Saturday, Tinubu said the U.S. classification \u201cdoes not reflect Nigeria\u2019s national reality\u201d and fails to recognize the country\u2019s ongoing efforts to protect religious freedom and tolerance.<\/p>\n

\u201cNigeria stands firmly as a democracy governed by constitutional guarantees of religious liberty,\u201d the President said. \u201cThe characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and belief for all Nigerians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tinubu emphasized that religious freedom and tolerance remain core elements of Nigeria\u2019s collective identity, adding that the country \u201copposes religious persecution and does not encourage it.\u201d<\/p>\n

His remarks came in response to a post by former U.S. President Donald Trump on Truth Social on Friday, in which Trump announced Nigeria\u2019s designation as a CPC, claiming that \u201cChristianity is facing an existential threat\u201d in the country. Trump alleged that \u201cthousands of Christians are being killed by radical Islamists\u201d and urged the U.S. Congress to investigate the situation.<\/p>\n

Under U.S. law, the CPC designation applies to countries accused of engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom. Nigeria was first placed on the list in December 2020 during Trump\u2019s first term but was later removed by the Biden administration in November 2021 a move that drew criticism from U.S. conservative and religious advocacy groups.<\/p>\n

Responding to the renewed label, President Tinubu stated that since assuming office in 2023, his administration has maintained open engagement with both Christian and Muslim leaders while addressing security challenges affecting citizens \u201cacross faiths and regions.\u201d<\/p>\n

He reaffirmed his government\u2019s commitment to working with the U.S. and international partners \u201cto deepen understanding and cooperation on the protection of communities of all faiths.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Nigeria is constitutionally secular, the nation has long grappled with religiously linked tensions, including farmer-herder clashes, insurgent attacks, and mob violence over blasphemy allegations. However, successive Nigerian governments have consistently denied that such conflicts stem from official religious\u00a0discrimination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata   President Bola Tinubu has rejected the United States\u2019 re-designation of Nigeria as a \u201cCountry of Particular Concern\u201d (CPC), describing the label as a distortion of Nigeria\u2019s true religious identity. In a statement posted on his official X handle on Saturday, Tinubu said the U.S. classification \u201cdoes not reflect Nigeria\u2019s national […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":77854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77855,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77853\/revisions\/77855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}