Nigeria will keep faith with Western Sahara’ self-determination bid – Says Buhari

Buhari DARES Moroccan authorities  with his support for the Self-Determination of Western Sahara . Will Morocco back Biafra?

General Muhammadu Buhari is angering authorities in Morocco, over his overt support for the Independence of Western Sahara. Buhari has been unrelenting and unequivocal of his support for the determination of Western Sahara and Palestine. This is surprising considering his stance on Biafra, which he had openly declared he will never allow to gain independence.

Buhari on Friday assured that Nigeria will stand with the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, SADR, in line with several resolutions of the African Union, AU, on the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence.

The Western Sahara is a disputed territory in the Maghreb region of North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It is one of the most sparsely populated territories in the world, mainly consisting of desert flatlands. Its population estimated at just over 500,000 is equivalent to few local government areas in Biafra.   Occupied by Spain in the late 19th century, Western Sahara has been on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories since 1963 after a Moroccan demand. In 1975, Spain relinquished the administrative control of the territory to a joint administration by Morocco (which had formally claimed the territory since 1957) and Mauritania. A war erupted between those countries and the Sahrawi national liberation movement, the Polisario Front, which proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) with a government-in-exile in Tindouf, Algeria. Mauritania withdrew in 1979, and Morocco eventually secured de facto control of most of the territory, including all the major cities and natural resources.

Since a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire agreement in 1991, two thirds of the territory (including most of the Atlantic coastline) has been under de facto control by Morocco and the remainder by the SADR, strongly backed by Algeria. Countries such as the United States and Russia have taken a generally ambiguous and neutral position on each side's claims, and have pressed both parties to agree on a peaceful resolution. Both Morocco and Polisario have sought to boost their claims by accumulating formal recognition, essentially from African, Asian, and Latin American states in the developing world. Morocco has won recognition or support for its position from several African governments and from most of the Arab League.

This is where Buhari is incurring the wrath of Morocco. While receiving the Minister of Foreign Affairs of SADR, Mohammed Salem Ould Salek, who visited him at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa as Special Envoy of President Mohammed Abdelaziz of SADR, Buhari declared his unrelenting support.

He pledged that outstanding issues on self-determination for the country would be scrupulously attended to, Buhari noted that: “the issue first came up when I was in office as military head of state. After I left government, Nigeria remained steadfast on it.

“In my maiden outing at the UN General Assembly last September, the issue of Sahrawi was in my speech. You have no cause to doubt our commitment. We stand with our African Union colleagues on this issue.

“Nigeria will maintain focus till everything is finally resolved positively,” he told Salek.

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The Special Envoy said his country would never forget the role Nigeria and its then military head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari played in recognizing his country in 1984, when it sought self-determination from Morocco.

“It paved the way for the UN to adopt several key resolutions on Western Sahara, elaborating a peace plan. History is now repeating itself, as you are the President of Nigeria at a time the Sahrawi issue is being put on the front burner again.’’

Salek told the President that his country needed a special push from Nigeria again, as it received in 1984, “to accelerate matters”.

He stressed that Nigeria helped a lot of African countries achieve independence, noting that SADR is the only pending matter on the continent.

A statement issued by Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, which disclosed this, reports that the SADR had, since its inception, been recognised by over 80 countries around the world, and in 1984 it became a full member of the OAU and is a founding member of the AU.

Will Morocco play a fast one on Buhari by backing Biafran Self-Determination? The ball is rolling in the court of the Moroccan ambassador to Nigeria.