In his first trip to Africa, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed a $2.1 billion assistance agreement with Nigeria to support health care, education, agriculture, and good governance. But a small-town Baptist preacher told him in a Nov. 19 private meeting that what persecuted Nigerian Christians want most is free speech. “Recently they have put one journalist, Luka Binniyat, behind bars for reporting a true story to an American audience,” the Rev. Joseph Hayab, chairman of the Kaduna state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, told Blinken in a small group meeting. “Our government is full of lies, and to make sure the world does not get the truth of what is happening in Nigeria, they are against free speech. Binniyat is in prison only because the government wants to silence him,” Hayab told The Epoch Times, when recalling his meeting with Blinken. Hayab and four other representatives of …