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President
Muhammadu Buhari on a state visit to Qatar over the weekend,
met with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the emir of Qatar,
on Sunday 28th February 2016. During the meeting,
the President said and we quote: “like the state of Qatar,
Nigeria favors a ‘two-state’ solution, with the state of
Palestine living side by side with the state of Israel.”
For
full measure, the President added that Nigeria would stand
side-by-side with Qatar, and again we quote: “until our
brothers and sisters in Palestine achieve their desired
objectives”; all these reportedly released by the Nigerian
presidency on Sunday.
For
clarity; the two-state solution is predicated on the United
Nations Charter on the right to self determination through
referendum of union nations of a UN member state to which
Nigeria and Israel also belong.
The
two-state solution is a proposed fix to decades of conflict
between Israelis and Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza, which
would see a Palestinian state established along borders that
existed prior to the Six Day War between Israel and its Arab
neighbors in 1967. Palestinians want any future state to
include the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
PPP
agrees with the President on the principle and right to self
determination as enshrined in the relevant UN Charter and UN
Security Council resolutions upon which the President's
declaration are anchored. We agree completely with President
Buhari that the people of Palestine should be allowed self
determination based on their peculiar circumstance.
We
also hasten to add that the Government of Israel is on
record accepting the same solution in principle and has in
fact implemented Palestinian self rule in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. The question that remains is the status of
Jerusalem; and both the Palestinian nation and the
Government of Israel are still in dialogue to sort out their
peculiar circumstance. So we stand with the President on
this.
However,
we fail to understand why the same President Buhari opposes
a similar solution right here at home on the Biafra
question; why he would abandon dialogue and rather prefer
that unarmed Biafra protesters be shot and killed at sight
for daring to demand the Palestinian solution here in
Nigeria; the same solution he has so eloquently and so
freely canvassed in far away Qatar. This is where we part
ways with the President.
The
Palestinian question and the Biafran question are one and
the same; the issues are the right to self determination of
component nations of both States; the State of Israel and
the State of Nigeria. Both states, Israel and Nigeria are
signatories to the UN Charter and its relevant articles on
referendum and self determination. Both questions are also
ethnic based; the Arab in Israel and the Ibo in Nigeria.
Therefore, the same principle ought to apply to both
questions. To support the right of one to a solution by
dialogue and self determination as the President has so
rightly enunciated for the Palestinian cause, while opposing
the same solution for the other smacks of sheer hypocrisy.
Clearly
then, the position of the Peoples Progressive Party is based
on equal application of the principles of universal
suffrage. In contrast, President Buhari’s positions are
completely incoherent on the same subject. The President
would appear to come down all over the place depending on
those involved and where the issues arise. In Israel, he
quite obviously accepts the application of the principles of
Article 1 of the UN Charter for the self determination of
the Palestinian nation. However, in Nigeria, he is opposed
to the same principle, even unto the extra-judicial killings
of unarmed civil protesters.
Therefore,
we view the President’s positions on these two issues as
highly dishonest and hypocritical and call upon him to lead
with some semblance of honour, decency and statesmanship.
The era of dubious and incoherent dictatorship is over for
good and the world now judges leaders not simply on foreign
policy posturing in faraway lands, but also by their
behavior in domestic matters on the home front.
Signed:
Dr. Damian Uzoma Ogbonna
National Chairman
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