Time For Nigeria To Stand Up For Africa

A CALAMITY hit Africa late March. A conference, crucial to its immediate needs, was
slated from March 23-28, 2017. It was primarily for
African development, and involved all African
Ministers for Finance, Planning and Economic
Development as well as development partners and
Civil society groups. Organised by the African Union, AU, and the United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa, it was to discuss the issues
of ‘Growth, Inequality and Unemployment’ in the
continent and what actions can be carried out. Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo was slated
to deliver the major Adedeji Lecture as part of the
Conference. His paper was to discuss the
repositioning of Nigeria. The Pre-Ministerial
meetings were on at the King Fahd Palace (former
Le Meridien Hotel) in Dakar, Senegal, when Morocco threw spanner in the works. It held the
meetings up over the participation of fellow AU
member, the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic
(Western Sahara). Reviving its pre-colonial claims
to ownership of the sister African country,
Morocco insisted that the conference would not hold unless Western Sahara was expelled. This was
precisely why Morocco in 1982 walked out of the
Organisation of African Union, OAU (now the AU)
. But Nigeria and other sister African countries had
called Morocco’s bluff, telling it in no uncertain
terms that Africa rejects colonisation even if it be by a brother African country. Nigeria, led in 1984
by then Head of State, General Muhammadu
Buhari, with Professor Ibrahim Gambari as Foreign
Minister, had affirmed Africa’s position by formally
granting recognition to the SADR. Morocco, too ashamed to return, stayed away
until this January when it applied for membership
of the AU. Now in its first official outing as a
member of the AU, it stopped such a crucial
conference. It had tried the same tantrums at the
TICAD in Nairobi, but was checked, just as it was asked to go to hell when it tried to disrupt the 2016
Malabo Africa-Arab Summit for the same reason. Tragically, Morocco which claims a new friendship
with Nigeria, was allowed to stop the Dakar
Conference. With South Africa embroiled in
political troubles, Nigeria is once again, Africa’s
power house. It has the duty to defend our
continent’s overall interests. But it failed the continent in Dakar by allowing the neo-colonial
monarchists from Morocco to thwart Africa’s
collective efforts. Unless we act fast, Morocco will
wreck African unity starting with the AU Summit in
July 2017. True, Morocco is now in bed with the Nigerian
Dangote Group exploiting the natural resources of
the Saharawi people. True, King Muhammed VI
paid a State Visit to Nigeria and wants to do
business with us. These are no reason we should
allow Morocco to destroy African unity and development efforts. If thirty three years ago,
President Buhari led Nigeria to stand for social
justice on Western Sahara, we cannot today, sit
on the fence. There are those who argue that
Nigeria should place her economic interests above
basic principles by abandoning the politically weak Saharawi and condoning Morocco’s colonial
ambitions. I say if this were a sane argument, it
should have been made during the Apartheid
Regime when we supported the politically weak
liberation movements. Nigeria must stand up for Africa by telling
Morocco in no uncertain terms that it must abide
by the AU constitution which recognises
membership by the SADR and Morocco, accepts
peoples’ right to independence, equality of
countries and state boundaries. We must defend the collective interests of Africans against the
parochial interests of Morocco.