Re - Buhari on West Sahara and the Palestinian issue
Eighteen years ago:
"It is unacceptable for example that Israel has been putting obstacles in the way of the peace process in Palestine, and the implementation of the Oslo Agreement. We must insist on the return of occupied Palestine Arab land and condemn the provocative policy of building new Jewish settlements on such land. We therefore call on the State of Israel to heed the demand of the entire international community and the vast majority of her own citizens to take the bold and imaginative steps necessary for the restoration of lasting peace in the region." (ADDRESS BY SIERRA LEONE'S PRESIDENT ALHAJI AHMAD TEJAN KABBAH TO THE ORGANISATION OF ISLAMIC COUNTRIES AT TEHERAN, IRAN on 9th December 1997)
Comment:
(a) The Oslo Agreement died a long time ago.
(b) With the Islamic State on the march, Syria up in flames, Iraq too, and everybody US, France, Russia Turkey etc. adding to whilst trying to put out the flames, it's hardly a matter of Israel taking "the bold and imaginative steps necessary for the restoration of lasting peace in the region"
31 Dec 2014: Netanyahu thanks Goodluck Jonathan .
It was a close shave and if truth be told, on that occasion it was a matter of thanking the Almighty for President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria.
Should the matter again be put to the vote at the UN, will the current Nigerian Government under Muhammad Buhari, abstain from voting? In his own country Nigeria, he too of course has problems not of his own making, all that home-grown terrorism with the brothers in the Boko Haram Mujahideen still on the rampage. And there too it's not simply a matter of President Buhari taking "bold and imaginative steps necessary for the restoration of lasting peace in the region"
For anyone in doubt, about where he stands on the matter of Intifada, here is the hard evidence that change has recently come to Nigerian Foreign Policy with Muhammadu Buhari as the new commander-in-chief:
28th September 2015: "Mr. President, the unresolved question of self-determination for the Palestinian people and those of Western Sahara, both nations having been adjusted by the United Nations as qualifying for this inalienable right must now be assured and fulfilled without any further delay or obstacle.
The international community has come to pin its hopes on resolving the Palestinian issue through the two – states solution which recognises the legitimate right of each state to exist in peace and security. The world has no more excuses or reasons to delay the implementation of the long list of Security Council resolutions on this question. Neither do we have the moral right to deny any people their freedom or condemn them indefinitely to occupation and blockade" (ADDRESS BY MUHAMMADU BUHARI PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE 70TH SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, NEW YORK, 28TH SEPTEMBER 2015)
The transcript says "both nations having been adjusted by the United Nations as qualifying" although I think that if that was not a typographical error, adjudicated could be the more appropriate word; but whether "adjusted" or "adjudicated" – in the case of Israel, where are the sine qua non defensible borders for Israel? Even for military or ex-military men that must be a consideration when it comes to Israel's survival in that most turbulent Middle East. Non-defensible borders would be nothing less than premeditated national suicide…
"Intoxicated with the wine of every man's got a right to determine his own destiny" is a beautiful expression but how to go about it? Boko Haram wanting their caliphate is of course a very different matter altogether from Hamas wanting their Palestinian State. The negotiating table is surely the best approach?
Sober reality: The Arab cousins already have twenty two states , a Palestinian State would be the twenty –third Arab State perhaps the smallest one to date compared to the Kingdom of Jordan for example, and as I usually tell my friends, currently Israel at 20,770 km² is barely twice the size of the Gambia, Africa's smallest former colony.
After the latest spate of terror bombings in Paris, Israel hopes that the West now understand Israel better
With regard to Independence for Western Sahara, Nigeria – like Sweden is on a collisions course with Morocco.
In both cases, Western Sahara and the so called two-State solution for the Pals, we still have a long way to go.
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