RE: NOT IN MY NAME: NIGERIA’S BETRAYAL OF PALESTINE

ABDULLAHI MUSA <[email protected]>; “Of course it was in your name! Who is Nigeria’s Foreign Minister? Is he not from your city, state? Have you forgotten that Jonathan had to go to Israel to get ‘God’s’ clearance’ [seeking the face of God] to contest the 2015 elections? Have you forgotten that we live in a unipolar […]

ABDULLAHI MUSA <[email protected]>; “Of course it was in your name! Who is Nigeria’s Foreign Minister? Is he not from your city, state? Have you forgotten that Jonathan had to go to Israel to get ‘God’s’ clearance’ [seeking the face of God] to contest the 2015 elections? Have you forgotten that we live in a unipolar world where U.S. and Israel cannot be disobeyed? Did your people anticipate the vote to give directives to their ‘son’ [the minister] to flex his muscle in favour of Palestine? Would he have listened to you and disobeyed Jonathan who would have sacked him? My brother, Jonathan knows who will keep him in power: it is not Palestine, but Israel and U.S. If his stay in power is not dependent on your votes, then his foreign policy will not give a hoot about your opinion.”
People became much angrier at Nigeria’s counter-justice action at the UN Security Council when it emerged a day after the vote that it was a well-planned and well-rehearsed U.S. and Israeli colonial-style pressure on an apparently weak Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, that cost the Palestinians – and all lovers of freedom – so dearly. The Guardian of London had this report on its New Year’s Eve edition (published at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/31/us-israel-un-reject-palestinian-resolution-nigeria-security-council):
“…Palestinian officials and other observers had thought Nigeria would back [the]…resolution, thereby delivering a nine-vote majority on the council which would have required a US veto to be blocked. Washington had been working strenuously to avoid having to use its veto. Until shortly before the vote on Tuesday, council diplomats had expected the resolution to get nine yes votes. But Nigeria abstained, with its ambassador, Joy Ogwu, echoing the US position in saying that the path to peace lay “in a negotiated solution”.
“One Palestinian source involved in the negotiations told the Guardian: ‘Even half an hour before the vote, Nigeria indicated it was committed to voting for the resolution. We knew that Rwanda, South Korea and Australia would not back it, but we believed Nigeria was on board.’ The apparent change by Nigeria, which is a rotating member of the council, came after both the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the US secretary of state, John Kerry, phoned the country’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, to ask him not to support the resolution…”
MUHAMMAD IBN UMAR <[email protected]>; “I wish to identify with you that the Betrayal of Palestine is Not also in my name. But the fact is that I was not surprised. From all indices, Jonathan is more Zionist than Israel itself. I wish to call on sane Nigerians to come out en masse to protest this betrayal particularly as the general elections are around the corner. Let’s identify with the long-suffering Palestinians. Muted protestations will not move this inglorious regime anywhere.”
In a recent article in the wake of the Nigerian betrayal (published at http://247nigerianewsupdate.co/the-palestinian-question-and-the-gradual-return-of-global-conscience/), Comrade Shakiru Ayinde Yekinni, Executive Director of the Centre for Global Peace Initiative (CGPI), reported an interesting encounter at a public lecture at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIAA) in Lagos where the Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria Mr. Uriel Palti was Guest Speaker to discuss the topic: The Arab/Israeli Conflict: Is Lasting Peace A Possibility?
“The Ambassador threw back the question, that he could not say whether a lasting peace was possible. However he attempted to distort history by his intermittent reference to the occupied lands as the ‘lands of Israel’…When it was time for response, I put several posers to the Ambassador including the offer by Jews to buy Palestine from  the Ottoman Empire (admitting they never owned the land); the assassination by Irgun of Lord Folke Bernadotte in Jerusalem in 1948 (showing Jews were violent from the very beginning); the Zionist agenda of a ‘Greater Israel’ (reason why Israel will never allow peace); how Israel always moved other nations to fight its wars (to puncture his argument of an invincible Israel, plus Israel’s defeat by HAMAS in 2006, which I didn’t utter)…
“After my speech of less than five minutes, the Ambassador became obviously embarrassed, and so also was the Chairman of the occasion, a former Ambassador of Nigeria to Israel and the United States, Professor George Obiozor. But Obiozor’s reaction was the more puzzling…In a bid to save the face of his guest, he launched into a tirade as to why I, a Nigerian wanted to ‘fight another man’s battle’: that both Israelis and Arabs are same children of Abraham and that I should not be concerned with whatever they do to themselves…
“Anyhow, the Ambassador was given the floor again to do a rejoinder to my contributions, but obviously could not respond to those points. Rather, he asked for my name which I told him and where I come from. I told him I am a Nigerian, but he insisted on knowing what part of Nigeria, and I told him Oyo State. I ask myself, why was he so interested in where I come from? Perhaps the narrative back in Israel was that opposition to Israeli occupation of Palestine is only domiciled in the north of Nigeria, while it is ‘friendship’ and ‘solidarity’ in the entire south. I am sure a new study by the embassy must have commenced on the new ’discovery’…”
BELLO SULEIMAN <[email protected]>; “Nigeria’s no-vote at that crucial moment is a demonstration that our political independence which our forefathers laboured so hard to secure means nothing to the Jonathan Administration. The government needs to be told loudly and clearly that that singular act was not done in the interest of Nigerians. The Nigerian masses are with the Palestinians and we salute the courage and forthrightness of those eight countries who voted in favour of Palestine.”
Many commentators may say France voted for Palestine NOT against Israel but against the United States, an overbearing country that France seeks to reduce in the international arena. Despite that, the courage of France should not be lost on all, or pass unappreciated. Sadly, the very Arabs who should appreciate this singular action of France and Luxembourg are busy playing the lapdogs of the US and Britain and, by extension, Israel. A steel irony of metallic proportions! The Guardian, in the same news report, reported the Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, taking a swipe at France and Luxembourg: “The Palestinian disregard to the international community…stems from the backing they receive from certain European countries.” Reports say France is already drafting yet another pro-Palestine UN bill.
ABBATI DANKANTI GUMEL <[email protected]>; “The betrayal by Nigeria did not come to us as a surprise as Israel is in the thick of the current insecurity facing this country. The frequent visits by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former US President George Bush into this country were geared towards admitting Nigeria into the Israeli Club! And they apparently have succeeded! Have you ever heard ISIS/ISIL/IS or other similar militant groups threatening Israel? No! Why not? They are all members of the Israeli Club!
HasbunalLahu wa ni’imal Wakeel! (Allah is Sufficient for us and He is the Best Disposer of affairs!)