Marino’s letter to Kerry: The Federal Government has described as ‘’sadly out of tune with reality’’ the published letter from US Congressman Tom Marino to Secretary of State John Kerry, asking the US to withhold security assistance to Nigeria on the strength of some purported infraction by the Buhari Administration.
The member of the United States Congress had written a letter to Secretary of State, John Kerry, asking the US government to withhold security assistance to Nigeria until President Muhammadu Buhari demonstrates a “commitment to inclusive government and the most basic tenets of democracy: freedom to assemble and freedom of speech”.
He had also asked the State Department to refrain from selling warplanes and other military equipment to Nigeria until Buhari establishes a track record of working towards inclusion.
In a two-page letter dated September 1, 2016 and addressed to Kerry, Marino, a Republican from Pennsylvania, who assumed office on January 3, 2011, said there were a number of warning signs emerging in the Buhari administration that signal “the man who once led Nigeria as a military dictator might be sliding towards former autocratic tendencies”.
The Congressman, who is a member of the Committees on the Judiciary, Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs, and the Chairman, Sub-committee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law, said Nigerian government must “hold accountable those members of the Nigerian Police Force and the Nigerian Military complicit in extra-judicial killings and war crimes”.
