By Our Correspondent <\/p>\n
The Senate Tuesday at plenary constituted a 12-member ad-hoc committee to advise it on how to respond to growing international concerns over alleged state-backed persecution of Christians in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
The decision was reached during a closed door session today, where lawmakers deliberated on recent claims by the United States Government suggesting possible acts of genocide targeting Christiansgenocide targeting Christians in some parts of the country.<\/p>\n
The Senate\u2019s move follows increasing diplomatic scrutiny and the potential implications of such allegations on Nigeria\u2019s international reputation and interfaith relations.<\/p>\n
Members of the committee include: Victor Umeh, Yemi Adaramodu, Aniekan Bassey, Niyi Adegbonmire, Abdul Ningi, Titus Zam.<\/p>\n
Others include Tony Nwoye, Tahir Munguno, Asuquo Ekpenyong.<\/p>\n
The committee has been tasked with developing a comprehensive position paper for presentation to both the Executive and the Senate.<\/p>\n
The team is expected to come up with a document that would shape Nigeria\u2019s legislative stance on the matter and guide its engagement in ongoing international discussions.<\/p>\n
The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, who made the declaration, noted that the position paper must be backed with verifiable facts and statistics.<\/p>\n
Earlier, the upper chamber resolved to engage with the United States Congress to address and counter what it described as misleading narratives portraying the country\u2019s security challenges as a Christian genocide.<\/p>\n
The decision followed a motion raised by Senator Ali Ndume ( Borno South ) last week which sparked a broader debate among lawmakers on the international perception of Nigeria\u2019s internal security issues.<\/p>\n
In an ensuing debate, lawmakers expressed concern that such narratives, though often arising from genuine concern, are grossly misinforming international partners and damaging Nigeria\u2019s global image and economy.<\/p>\n
Akpabio mooted the idea that an adhoc committee be set up, to visit the United States and directly engage with American lawmakers to clarify the situation.<\/p>\n
He noted the need for private discussions, suggesting a closed door session and a smaller delegation to undertake the engagement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are misconceptions that need to be corrected. We are dealing with a complex terrorist threat and it\u2019s mportant that our counterparts in the US understand that the violence affects both Christians and Muslims\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Our Correspondent The Senate Tuesday at plenary constituted a 12-member ad-hoc committee to advise it on how to respond to growing international concerns over alleged state-backed persecution of Christians in Nigeria. The decision was reached during a closed door session today, where lawmakers deliberated on recent claims by the United States Government suggesting possible […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5008,1756,4496,1519,2291,2444],"class_list":["post-7935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-delegates","tag-engagement","tag-misconceptions","tag-misleading","tag-narratives","tag-portraying"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7936,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7935\/revisions\/7936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}