A Nigerian pastor is blaming the country's weak government on the Islamist sect Boko Haram's continuous attacks against the Christian population, and has called on the United States to officially declare the group a terrorist organization.

Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), made his argument on July 10 in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Sub-committee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights in Washington, D.C.

Oritsejafor called on the United States to officially declare Boko Haram a terrorist organization. Although the U.S. has named some members of the sect as terrorist leaders, it has yet to recognize the entire sect as a terrorist organization.

"This would be the equivalent of designating Bin Laden as a terrorist, but failing to designate al-Qaida as a terrorist organization," Ortisejafor told the committee.

"There are certain Muslim extremists who believe that Nigeria must be an Islamic nation [and] Boko Haram is the body that is fronting for this group of persons... [Nigeria] has a very well divided population among the two major religions [Christianity and Islam], so it's not possible to Islamize Nigeria," Oritsejafor said, as reported by Voice of America.

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