US aid deals with religious element risk ‘fanning flames’ of division, senior Nigerian minister says

Religion-focused foreign aid arrangements risk “fanning the flames” of division, a senior Nigerian government minister has said

Mohammed Idris, Nigerian Minister of Information and Government Spokesperson, Independent It is Nigeria’s first official visit to the UK in 37 years.

In December, Nigeria was one of 14 countries to sign bilateral aid agreements with the United States, known as health agreements, that include new provisions on data sharing and restrictions on how the money must be spent.

The $2.1bn (£1.6bn) deal with Nigeria included “significant dedicated funds to support Christian health facilities”, The US State Department said:and “negotiated in connection with the Nigerian government’s reforms to prioritize the protection of the Christian population”.

The religious makeup of the West African country, which is almost evenly divided between Muslims and Christians, had been under scrutiny by Washington for several months; US President Donald Trump has warned many times that Christians are being attacked. Killed by “radical Islamists”. On Christmas Day last year, Trump attempted to bomb camps run by ISIS-linked militants in the country’s northwest. mixed reports about the effectiveness of strikes.

Mr. Idris told Independent He said Nigeria would prefer to have no such religious provisions in foreign interventions in aid.

“If the aid is going to benefit people, that’s good. But we don’t want the classification of Nigeria along these religious lines. It’s not very helpful. It risks creating more problems for us,” he said, adding that Nigeria will accept the new deal out of “pragmatism”, but it would be preferable if the aid approach of foreign countries did not risk “fanning the flames”.

“We are a country where 230 million people from different religions and origins tolerate each other,” he continued. “We really want to discourage any conversation between Christians and Muslims because that’s exactly what the terrorists want: they want to divide us along religious lines.”

Idris’s comments came just two days after a suspected suicide bombing in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, a northeastern region long troubled by the Islamic terror group Boko Haram. 23 people died and more than 100 were injured.

Mr Idris was in London as part of Nigerian President Tinubu’s state visit delegation, which included meetings with politicians as well as several meetings with the royal family, including the State Banquet at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.

This state visit, with UK-Nigeria trade now worth £8.1 billion according to the UK government, also saw the signing of a number of major business deals that will result in the creation of hundreds of jobs in both countries.

The visit follows a period in which Nigeria – like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa – has suffered significantly from cuts in foreign aid, particularly from the United States, and the sudden closure of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at the beginning of last year.

But Mr Idris, who acknowledged that aid cuts had an impact on the health sector in particular, said Nigeria was now seeking new types of economic partnerships with countries in the Global North.

“Aid has many admirable and desirable purposes, but ultimately it is not what we need for the sustainable development of our country and society,” he said. “What we need now is more economic partnerships and new types of cooperation.”

Talking about the Nigeria-UK relationship, he added: “Our relationship has many facets, starting from colonialism, to aid, which was important in the past, to partnership and trade now.”

Mr Idris said that apart from developing new trade relationships, one of Nigeria’s key priorities going forward was adapting to climate change.

The climate crisis “along with the major threats our country faces” is both the main driver of climate change and severe food insecurity What we face in many parts of our country Resource-based conflict between farmers and herders – There is also a tendency for division along Muslim-Christian religious lines in the Middle Belt of the country.

Mr. Idris said, “Climate change is an important cause of our country’s problems and is causing desertification and increased pressure on land in some regions.” “We can’t live in denial. We need to accept the fact that this is happening and work to reduce its impact on our people.”

This article was produced as part of The Independent. Rethinking Global Aid project