ABUJA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Nigeria's president on Saturday refuted claims of religious intolerance and defended the West African nation's efforts to protect religious freedom, a day after President Donald Trump added it to a U.S. watch list over what he said were threats to Christianity.
"The characterization 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 beliefs for all Nigerians," Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said in a statement, citing "constitutional guarantees to protect citizens of all faiths."
Nigeria's Foreign Ministry, in a separate statement, vowed to keep fighting violent extremism and said it hoped Washington would remain a close ally, saying it "will continue to defend all citizens, irrespective of race, creed, or religion. Like America, Nigeria has no option but to celebrate the diversity that is our greatest strength."
On Friday, Trump said in a social media post that he was putting Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer and most populous country, on a "Countries of Particular Concern" list.
The list, authorized by the U.S. Religious Freedom Act of 1998, requires the president to designate countries found to have engaged in religious freedom violations, and currently includes China, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia and Pakistan, among others.
The move opens the door to a range of policy responses such as sanctions or waivers, but they are not automatic.
The Republican U.S. President had designated Nigeria a concern during his first term in the White House, but his Democratic successor Joe Biden removed it from the U.S. State Department list in 2021.
Some religious groups pressed Trump for the redesignation in a letter last month, according to a copy on the Hudson Institute think tank's website.
"Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter," Trump wrote without offering any specifics. He also called on the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee to investigate.
A nation of more than 200 ethnic groups practicing Christianity, Islam and traditional religions, Nigeria has a long history of peaceful coexistence with mosques and churches dotting its cities.
But it also has a long history of violence breaking out between groups, in which religious differences sometimes overlap with other fault lines such as ethnic divisions or conflict over scarce land and water resources.
For 15 years, the extremist Islamist armed group Boko Haram has also terrorized northeast Nigeria, an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly Muslims.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey in Washington, and Camillus Eboh in Abuja; Editing by MacDonald Dzirutwe and Andrea Ricci)
