‘Buhari’s A Hypocrite For Supporting Palestinian Self-Determination, Killing Biafra Agitations’

President Muham­madu Buhari has come under attacks following his statement supporting Palestine self-determina­tion  during his visit to Qatar.

A political pressure group, the People’s Progressive Party has described the Buhari as a hypocrite and highly dishonest as the Biafrans and the Palestinian agitations are no different with regards to right to self determination. 

“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.

The party in a statement signed on Tuesday, March 1, 2015 in Abuja by the National Chairman, Dr. Damian Uzoma Ogbonna said the President should make a stand as he is seen to be shifting posts on the subject;

“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. 

In a statement , 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.”