The Muslim Public Affairs Centre (MPAC) strongly condemns the United States Embassy’s attempt to infiltrate Nigeria’s school curriculum through the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP).
The program’s “Educating about the Difficult Past to Advance Peace and Conflict Resolution” initiative, which aims to integrate Holocaust education into Nigerian schools, is a thinly veiled attempt to promote Zionist agenda and support distorted historical narratives.
While we acknowledge the significance of the Holocaust and its impact on the Jewish community, we must also recognize that the Holocaust has been used in various ways to justify Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians and the occupation:
(1). Legitimization of Israel’s existence at the expense of the Palestinians. This narrative implies that the establishment of Israel is a necessary response to the trauma of the Holocaust.
(2). Victimhood narrative: Israel often presents itself as a victim state, drawing parallels between the Holocaust and the perceived threats to Israel’s existence. This narrative is used to elicit support or reroute sympathy.
(3). Delegitimization of Palestinian claims: By emphasizing the Holocaust, Israel seeks to undermine Palestinian claims to their land and rights. The implication is that Palestinian demands are insignificant compared to the suffering of the Jewish people during the Holocaust.
(4). Moral justification for military actions: Israel has used the Holocaust to justify its military actions against Palestinians, framing them as necessary measures to prevent another Holocaust. The United States supply most of the weapons used by Israel against the Palestinians in the ongoing genocide.
(5). Silencing criticism: Critics of Israel’s policies are often accused of anti-Semitism or Holocaust denial, effectively silencing dissent and stifling debate.
(6). Occupation as self-defense: Israel portrays the occupation of Palestinian territories as a necessary measure for self-defense, drawing on the trauma of the Holocaust to justify its actions.
It is therefore important to recognize how the teaching of Holocaust’s significance and its invocation are being used, most especially in the United States where the discussion is dominated, nay controlled, by the Israeli Lobby, to justify Israel’s oppressive policies.
It is ironic that the United States Embassy seeks to impose Holocaust education on Nigerian schools while ignoring the ongoing suffering of the Palestinian people, which is, in part, a consequence of US policy in the region for many decades.
United States that disregards the international law, that sanctioned the judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for calling out Israeli war crimes in Gaza, that spent $17.9 Billion in US taxpayers dollars to fund a genocidal war in Gaza in 2024 and severally blocked United Nations Security Council’s resolutions to advance peace in Palestine cannot be infusing propaganda into our school curriculum under the pretense of teaching how to advance peace and conflict resolution.
If the interest of the United States Embassy is to “educate about the difficult past”, perhaps the history of trans-Atlantic slavery, civil rights movement, colonialism, apartheid are more relevant topics for Nigerians.
MPAC demands that the United States respects Nigeria’s sovereignty and refrains from using backdoor tactics to influence our education system as we will not allow our curriculum to be hijacked by foreign interests seeking to promote a biased agenda.
We urge the Nigerian government and people to be vigilant and reject this attempt to manipulate our education system. Instead of imposing a foreign narrative, we should focus on teaching our children about the struggles and injustices that have shaped our own history and continent.
MPAC calls on the Nigerian government to take immediate action to prevent this infringement on our national autonomy. We stand in solidarity with all Nigerians who value their heritage and reject any form of external manipulation.
Together, we will ensure that our education system remains a reflection of our values, history and aspirations.
-The End- Disu Kamor
Executive Chairman
Muslim Public Affairs Centre
[email protected]
www.mpac-ng.org
