The
People’s Progressive Party (PPP), on Tuesday hit hard at President
Muhammadu Buhari over his statement on the efforts at
self-determination by the Palestinians during his recent visit to
Qatar.
Buhari had while
expressing his support for the statehood of Palestine, noted that the
City of Jerusalem should be approved as the capital of the Arab state
which has been decades of conflict with the state of Israel.
In
a reaction to the President’s stand, the PPP described it as
hypocritical and highly dishonest and called on him to give a second
thought to the issue of Biafra in Nigeria.
In a
statement signed on Tuesday in Abuja by PPP National Chairman, Dr.
Damian Uzoma Ogbonna, the party said it agreed with the President on the
principle and right to self-determination as enshrined in the relevant
United Nations (UN) Charter and UN Security Council resolutions.
The
President had last Sunday during a meeting with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad
Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, said: “Like the state of Qatar, Nigeria
favours a ‘two-state’ solution, with the state of Palestine living side
by side with the state of Israel.”
Ogbonna said:
“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 on sight for daring to demand the Palestinian solution here in
Nigeria; the same solution he has so eloquently and so freely canvassed
in faraway Qatar. This is where we part ways with the President.
“The
Palestinian question and the Biafra 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 Igbo 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 People’s 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 extrajudicial killings of unarmed civil protesters,” Ogbonna said.
Source: http://www.thewhistler.ng/story/buhari-killing-of-biafra-and-supporting-palestine-is-hypocrisy-ppp
Source: http://www.thewhistler.ng/story/buhari-killing-of-biafra-and-supporting-palestine-is-hypocrisy-ppp
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