During a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa on Wednesday, Chairman Chris Smith criticised former President Barack Obama’s administration for delaying the designation of Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation.
“Make no mistake, these ongoing attacks are based on religion and diverting attention from it. Let me just say parenthetically, I tried for three years to get the [Obama] administration to designate Boko Haram as an FTO, as a Foreign Terrorist organization,” said Smith. “I held hearing after hearing and they wouldn’t do it.”
Smith revealed that for three years, despite mounting evidence of Boko Haram’s atrocities in Nigeria, the administration resisted calls to label the group as a terrorist organisation.
The hearing, titled ‘Conflict and Persecution in Nigeria: The Case for a CPC Designation’, focused on escalating violence against Christians and moderate Muslims in Nigeria.
Smith recounted his efforts to push the Obama administration to take action against Boko Haram, describing the refusal to grant the FTO designation as a missed opportunity to investigate the group’s funding and weapons sources.
Smith shared his experiences visiting Nigeria in 2013, where he met survivors of Boko Haram attacks.
Among them was Habila Adamu, a Christian who survived being shot in the face after refusing to renounce his faith. Adamu’s story was emblematic of the group’s campaign of religious persecution. Smith highlighted that Boko Haram’s actions, including church bombings and mass killings, were clear indicators of their extremist agenda.
Despite bipartisan pressure from Congress and recommendations from U.S. intelligence agencies, the Obama administration only designated Boko Haram as an FTO in 2013—on the same day Smith was preparing legislation to force the designation.
Smith expressed frustration over this delay, particularly given Boko Haram’s role in high-profile atrocities such as the kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls.
The hearing also addressed ongoing violence by militant Fulani herdsmen, whom Bishop Wilfred Anagbe described as “terrorists” who act with impunity. Witnesses testified about widespread killings, kidnappings, and displacement targeting Christians and moderate Muslims.
According to reports presented at the hearing, over 55,000 people were killed and 21,000 abducted in Nigeria between 2019 and 2023 due to terror-related violence.
Smith excoriated both Nigerian authorities and successive U.S. administrations for failing to address religious persecution adequately. He noted that while President Donald Trump designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern in 2020, this status was reversed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in 2021 without justification.
