• Main News
  • About Us
  • Contact
Premium Times Opinion
Friday, August 12, 2022
  • Home
  • Democracy and Governance
    • Bámidélé Upfront
    • Jibrin Ibrahim
    • Okey Ndibe
  • Economy
    • Ifeanyi Uddin
  • Issues of the Day
    • Adeolu Ademoyo
    • Aribisala on Tuesday
    • Dele Agekameh
    • Pius Adesanmi
  • Politics
    • Ebeneezer Obadare
    • Femi Fani-Kayode
    • Garba Shehu
    • Hannatu Musawa
    • Zainab Suleiman Okino
  • Guest Columns
  • Faith
    • Article of Faith
    • Sunday Ogidigbo
    • Friday Sermon
    • Elevated Sight
  • Home
  • Democracy and Governance
    • Bámidélé Upfront
    • Jibrin Ibrahim
    • Okey Ndibe
  • Economy
    • Ifeanyi Uddin
  • Issues of the Day
    • Adeolu Ademoyo
    • Aribisala on Tuesday
    • Dele Agekameh
    • Pius Adesanmi
  • Politics
    • Ebeneezer Obadare
    • Femi Fani-Kayode
    • Garba Shehu
    • Hannatu Musawa
    • Zainab Suleiman Okino
  • Guest Columns
  • Faith
    • Article of Faith
    • Sunday Ogidigbo
    • Friday Sermon
    • Elevated Sight
No Result
View All Result
Premium Times Opinion
Home Opinion

Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic: Gathering to Defend the Weak, By Owei Lakemfa

by Premium Times
March 21, 2016
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0

Sahrawi_Arab_Democratic_Republic

Its President, Dr. Nasir Fegge Isa retold a story he heard from a diplomat that Morocco was like a thief caught with a stolen wallet with the judge (UN) asking the owner (Western Sahara) and the thief to go out and settle. Only for the owner to find the thief spending the stolen money, and discovering that the thief had also stolen his pin number and was withdrawing money from the victim’s account. Yet the judge insists on an out-of-court settlement.

We gathered in Abuja. A crowd of activists, academics, unionists, diplomats, students, lawyers and conscientious Nigerians. We were complemented by a platoon of ambassadors. It was Saturday March 12, 2016. The mood was sombre; tinged with the painful realisation that we were gathered to strategise against the monarchical elites of a brother African country who had decided to covet the riches of a sister country.

We were faced with a situation in which the Morocco Goliath had rampaged like a drunken bull through tiny Western Sahara; an underage David that has refused to yield to the bully or give up the fight to defend his homeland. But for greed and a sense of ancient glamour, I wonder why Morocco is occupying Western Sahara. I have travelled in beautiful Morocco. My favourite site is the magnificent architectural masterpiece – the 23-year Hassan II Mosque which protrudes into the loving arms of the Atlantic Ocean. In building the seventh largest mosque in the world with its 60-storey minaret and retractable roof, King Hassan II had said in 1980 that his objective is for the faithful “…to praise the creator on firm soil (and) contemplate God’s sky and ocean.”

Two years ago, I travelled by road from Casablanca through breathtaking landscape to beautiful Marrakesh. I wonder why a country so blessed with fantastic cities like Rabat would covet Laayoune which is the largest Saharawi town.

As the conscientious intellectual and fighter for oppressed peoples, Dr. Dipo Fashina told us, “The situation is a bit confusing because the Moroccan government has been fraudulently passing off products from Western Sahara as Moroccan. The bulk of canned fish by various names, sold in Nigeria today, is packaged in Western Sahara, yet they are labeled ‘product of Morocco’. The phosphate which Morocco mines in Western Sahara is claimed to be a product of Morocco as well.”

The issue of phosphate came up repeatedly as Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the symbol of Nigerian entrepreneurial skill, is about being conned by Morocco to buy phosphate stolen from Western Sahara. I told friends at the gathering that I am sure Dangote is unaware that he is being offered stolen goods by Morocco; now that he knows, he needs to distance himself and his business from a country that preys on a smaller country.

A father figure at the gathering was the intellectual and former Chair of the United Nations (UN) Security Council, Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari. He was Foreign Affairs Minister in November 1984 when Nigeria granted the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara) diplomatic recognition. In his Keynote Address, he paraphrased former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan who argued that there can be neither peace nor development anywhere on earth unless people have the right to decide who will rule them, and their human rights are fully respected.

To him, the issues in Western Sahara can be summarised thus: First is that it is a Decolonization Question, hence the goal is total freedom. Second, is the issue of peoples sovereignty over their territory. Third is, given Nigeria’s central role in the Africa Union admitting the Saharawi as its 51st member, our country has the unfinished task of getting colonial Morocco to vacate. Fourth, after forty five years on the UN Agenda, the global body has clearly failed the Saharawi people, so it is left for Africa to take the lead. Fifth, that aggressive diplomacy by Morocco is undermining African solidarity. So, what is required is redoubled efforts to set the last African colony free.

Professor Gambari warned that “The alternative to a peaceful solution will be the resumption of hostilities and the destabilisation of the whole West Africa, Africa and the world as a whole.”

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which put the gathering together has taken concrete steps to assist in the liberation struggle. It awarded post graduate scholarships to three Saharawi in Nigerian universities, is helping to develop curriculum and fund mobilisation for the take-off of a Law Faculty at the University of Tifariti, Western Sahara, and in collaboration with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) organised the 2015 international conference on ‘Africa’s Last Colony’, in Abuja. Its President, Dr. Nasir Fegge Isa retold a story he heard from a diplomat that Morocco was like a thief caught with a stolen wallet with the judge (UN) asking the owner (Western Sahara) and the thief to go out and settle. Only for the owner to find the thief spending the stolen money, and discovering that the thief had also stolen his pin number and was withdrawing money from the victim’s account. Yet the judge insists on an out-of-court settlement.

Comrade Ayuba Wabba, the NLC President said Congress will soon open a Western Sahara Solidarity Fund and called on Dangote not to go ahead with doing business with Morocco, especially on the stolen Saharawi phosphate, or face opposition from workers and be included in a Roll of Dishonour. He added that a people determined cannot be defeated.

Noted Pan African intellectual, Professor Adele Jinadu said the struggle to decolonise Western Sahara is an opportunity for Africans to build bridges across the Sahara linking Northern and Southern Africa, and extending it to Africans in the Diaspora. Biodun Aremu, the Joint Secretary of the Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO) who spoke on behalf of the Civil Society urged government and Nigerians to stop Dangote doing business with Morocco and cut all links, including sporting with that country. He urged students and youths to establish chapters of the newly inaugurated Nigerian Movement for the Liberation of Western Sahara. Ambassadors who made solidarity speeches included those of Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Ghana, Botswana, Cuba and Algeria.

The leadership of the Nigerian Movement for the Liberation of Western Sahara was inaugurated by the Saharawi Foreign Minister Mohammed Salem Ould Salek assisted by its ambassador Oubi Bachir, under the chairmanship of former NLC President, Ali Chiroma. The President of the Movement is Professor Gambari; Professor Adele Jinadu, Vice President; Dr. Dipo Fashina, Coordinator. Sokoto State University Vice Chancellor, Professor Nuhu Yaqub and I were among the Ex-Officio members sworn-in. For me, it is a call to serve.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Pocket
  • Share on Tumblr

Related

Previous Post

Oga Soldier, There Is God o!, By Ahmed Oluwasanjo

Next Post

Nigeria: Inflation, Monetary Policy, and Poverty, By Uddin Ifeanyi

Related Posts

Zamfara Gold As Commonwealth, By Zailani Bappa
Opinion

Sheikh Gumi, Governor Matawalle and the Sands of Time, By Zailani Bappa

February 2, 2021
June 12 As Democracy Day Needs To Be Reconsidered, By Bashir Tofa
Opinion

The Need To Act Now To Stop the Ethnic Conflagration!, By Bashir Othman Tofa

February 2, 2021
Kofi Annan: In Service of the World, By Ejeviome Eloho Otobo & Oseloka H. Obaze
Opinion

Biden’s Likely Policy Orientation Toward Africa, By Ejeviome E. Otobo and Oseloka H. Obaze

February 2, 2021
Agenda for ‘Born Again’ JAMB and TETFUND, By Tunde Musibau Akanni
Opinion

Oyeweso, A Celebrated Historian, Ascends the Sixth Floor, By Tunde Akanni

February 2, 2021
Before Nigeria Burns, By Akin Fadeyi
Opinion

Is President Buhari Presiding Over the Last United Nigeria?, By Akin Fadeyi

February 2, 2021
On A Soyinka Prize In ‘Illiteracy’, By Biko Agozino
Opinion

Obasanjo: Only Those Who Did Not Do Well Went Into the Military, By Biko Agozino

February 1, 2021
Next Post
A New Low, By Uddin Ifeanyi

Nigeria: Inflation, Monetary Policy, and Poverty, By Uddin Ifeanyi

Sanusi II and the Prospects of Radical Emirship, By Jibrin Ibrahim

In Nigeria Democracy Survives, But Not Because of Political Science, By Jibrin Ibrahim

Editorial

  • EDITORIAL: The Urgency of Tackling Nigeria’s Second Wave of COVID-19

    EDITORIAL: The Urgency of Tackling Nigeria’s Second Wave of COVID-19

  • EDITORIAL: Unearthing the Cogent Lessons In the NESG-CBN Economic Policy Imbroglio

    EDITORIAL: Unearthing the Cogent Lessons In the NESG-CBN Economic Policy Imbroglio

  • EDITORIAL: COVID-19: Calling On Nigeria’s Billionaires and Religious Leaders To Step Up

    EDITORIAL: COVID-19: Calling On Nigeria’s Billionaires and Religious Leaders To Step Up

  • EDITORIAL: Bichi Must Go; Buhari Must Halt Slide Into Despotism

    EDITORIAL: Bichi Must Go; Buhari Must Halt Slide Into Despotism

  • EDITORIAL: The Flaws In Governor Emefiele’s Five-Year Plan For Central Bank of Nigeria

    EDITORIAL: The Flaws In Governor Emefiele’s Five-Year Plan For Central Bank of Nigeria

Subscribe to our Opinion articles via email

Enter your email address to get notifications of new opinion articles as they are published.

Join 526,543 other subscribers

Most Popular

  • The Bad Consequences and Dangers of Adultery and Fornication (Zina) In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
    The Bad Consequences and Dangers of Adultery and Fornication (Zina) In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
  • The Importance Of Keeping Secrets In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
    The Importance Of Keeping Secrets In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
  • Islam and the Conditions For Marrying More Than One Wife, By Murtadha Gusau
    Islam and the Conditions For Marrying More Than One Wife, By Murtadha Gusau
  • Showing Gratitude To Allah For His Bounties, Blessings and Favours, By Murtadha Gusau
    Showing Gratitude To Allah For His Bounties, Blessings and Favours, By Murtadha Gusau
  • The Women Prohibited For Men To Marry In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
    The Women Prohibited For Men To Marry In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
  • The Qualities of a Good Leader In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
    The Qualities of a Good Leader In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
  • You Will Be Held Responsible On What Happened To Your Children!, By Murtadha Gusau
    You Will Be Held Responsible On What Happened To Your Children!, By Murtadha Gusau

Like us on Facebook

Like us on Facebook

Podcasts

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

  • Main News
  • About Us
  • Contact

© 2022 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Democracy and Governance
    • Bámidélé Upfront
    • Jibrin Ibrahim
    • Okey Ndibe
  • Economy
    • Ifeanyi Uddin
  • Issues of the Day
    • Adeolu Ademoyo
    • Aribisala on Tuesday
    • Dele Agekameh
    • Pius Adesanmi
  • Politics
    • Ebeneezer Obadare
    • Femi Fani-Kayode
    • Garba Shehu
    • Hannatu Musawa
    • Zainab Suleiman Okino
  • Guest Columns
  • Faith
    • Article of Faith
    • Sunday Ogidigbo
    • Friday Sermon
    • Elevated Sight

© 2022 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
 

Loading Comments...