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LAGOS, Nigeria (ChurchMilitant.com) - While former President Barack Obama is taking credit for the current surge in economic growth and job creation in the United States, a former Nigerian minister is blaming him and key members of his cabinet for the slaughter of Nigerian Christians at the hands of Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram.

Femi Fani-Kayode, Nigeria's former Minister of Culture and Tourism, faults the Obama administration for backing 2015 presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim. Buhari won the nation's presidency and afterward, Fani-Kayode said, went soft on Boko Haram.

"What Obama, John Kerry and Hilary [sic] Clinton did to Nigeria by funding and supporting [Muhammadu] Buhari in the 2015 presidential election and helping Boko Haram in 2014/2015 was sheer wickedness," said Fani-Kayode, the country's former Minister of Culture and Tourism. "The blood of all those killed by the Buhari administration, his Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram over the last five years are on their hands."

In a Feb. 12 Facebook post, the minister, who was campaign chief for former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, said that upon Buhari's election, he canceled contracts to eradicate the terrorists.

Fani-Kayode stated that had Donald Trump been president of America in 2015, matters "would have been very different." "Boko Haram would have been history and the Fulani herdsmen [a mostly Muslim group also attacking Christians] would never have seen the light of day," he said. In one month, we took back terrain larger than Belgium from Boko Haram. We were not allowed to finish ... The former minister backed up his statements by highlighting a January Al Jazeera interview with a former military contractor whose company was hired to eradicate Muslim terrorists in Nigeria. Eeben Barlow, chairman of a private army group called "Specialized Tasks, Training, Equipment and Protection International," explained that he was subcontracted in 2014 to assist the Nigerian government under then-president Goodluck Jonathan to help eradicate the Boko Haram threat.



During the interview, Barlow says that one of the first acts of then-incoming president Buhari in 2015 was to terminate his contract. "In one month, we took back terrain larger than Belgium from Boko Haram. We were not allowed to finish because it came at a time when governments were in the process of changing," said Barlow. Persecution-monitoring groups ... estimate that more than 7,000 Nigerian Christians have been killed for their faith in the past five years. "The incoming president, President Buhari was heavily supported by a foreign government, and one of the first missions was to terminate our contract.” When asked, Barlow identified the United States as the "foreign government," adding it "funded President Buhari's campaign" as well as providing a campaign manager. 11 Christians slaughtered in Nigeria on Christmas 2019 Fani-Kayode took Barlow's interview comments to affirm that Obama, Kerry and Clinton share responsibility for the terrorism and bloodshed taking place in Nigeria today. He said that he predicted the bloodshed caused by Boko Haram "throughout the 2015 presidential campaign but Nigerians would not listen." "Those of you that still love the evil called Barack Obama should listen to [Barlow's interview] and tell me if you still do," said Fani-Kayode. Church Militant reported on the martyrdom of 11 Nigerian men who were taken hostage by Islamic militants, then shot and decapitated on Christmas Day 2019. On Jan. 19, the Islamic State of West Africa (ISWA) released a video of a young child executing a Christian man in Borno, Nigeria. On Jan. 22, Nigerian pastor Rev. Lawan Andimi, was beheaded by Boko Haram terrorists. Rev. Andimi turned a hostage video into a testimonial of his faith in Jesus: "By the grace of God, I will be together with my wife, my children and my colleagues," he said. "[But] if the opportunity has not been granted, maybe it is the will of God ... be patient, don't cry, don't worry. But thank God for everything." Persecution-monitoring groups such as Open Doors and Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust estimate that more than 7,000 Nigerian Christians have been killed for their faith in the past five years. --- Campaign 31877 ---

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