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Western Sahara:
we are not independent if a part of Africa remains
colonized-NLC President
By Chuks Ehirim
Newsdiaryonline Friday Sep 30,2011
President of the
Nigerian Labour Congress [NLC], Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, has
accused both Nigeria and the African
Union [AU], of not doing
enough to further the cause of the
decolonization process.Omar who spoke at the
International Conference on the
struggle of Saharawi Women for Freedom Organization, put
together in Abuja, by the Women
Advancement for Economic and Leadership Empowerment in
Africa[WAELE/ARCELFA], lamented that both Nigeria and the AU
have not been able to put pressure on the Moroccan Government to
grant Independence to the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic
[SADR]. The labour leader said that Nigerian people , who in
1984, recognized the SADR, are one with all freedom loving
peoples of the World in demanding that
Morocco ends its occupation and allows the Saharawis to
freely run their country.
‘’We continue to support
the African Union[AU],which recognized SADR and admitted it into
its fold as a full member . However, we do not think that
Nigeria and the AU have gone far enough on the issue of
decolonizing the last colony on our continent’’, Omar said. He
complained that ‘’if sanctions can be applied on Apartheid
South-Africa, there is no reason
why it cannot be applied against colonial Morocco. We as
Nigerians need to do more for the independence of the Saharawi
people because we cannot claim to be independent if a part of
our continent remains colonized’’.
The NLC President added
that ‘’the situation is even more urgent as the bulk of the
Saharawi people have been forced to live in refugee camps for
close to four decades’’. He said that the recent delegation sent
to Western Sahara, had a heart
rendering story to tell as they found Saharawi children being
forced by Moroccan occupation, to schooled in various languages
and claims. Omar made an appeal to his fellow Nigerians
saying:’’Comrades , Western Sahara needs volunteers , they need
teachers to teach their children English, they need computer
scientists to teach their children the rudiments of computer
education and usage, above all, they need our solidarity’’.
He described the Saharawi people as peace- loving , stating that
‘’they do not demand the control of other people’s resources or
territories. All they demand is freedom and peace in the land of
their ancestors’’.
He also condemned the occupation of Palestinian land by Israel.
According to Omar, ‘’it is inconceivable that the Israelis who
fought for a home land, would
seek to deny the Palestinians their own home land. The holy book
instructs: ‘’Thou shall not steal’’. The building of
Israeli settlements on
Palestinian land is nothing but theft’’.
Speaking at the same
occasion, the President of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities[ASUU], Professor Amuche Awuzie, said that what is
going on in the Western Sahara,
‘’is the colonization of African country by another
African country’’. Professor Awuzie said the situation is sad.
He added that ASUU supports the struggle of the Saharawi people
and would want the AU to
do same. ’’We condemn oppression, colonization or
neo-colonization in any form, anywhere in
the World. ASUU promises
to support the initiative until all
forms of colonization in
Africa in eradicated’’ , he
said.
In his own contribution
which came in form of a solidarity message,
Lagos radical lawyer and
President of West African Lawyers Association, Mr Femi Falana,
berated the President of the United
States of America, Barak Obama, over his double standard
on issues of international diplomacy especially with regards to
the position of America in the squabble between Israel and
Palestine.
According to Falana,’’it is the height of hypocrisy to celebrate
the fall of Gadaffi and Mubarak, while you are denying the
oppressed people of Western Sahara and
Palestine, their home
lands’’.He said his group will ensure
that the case of SADR as well as the Palestinian matter form
part of the debate during the next Presidential
election in the
United States of America.
Speaking earlier,
President and founder of WAELE/ARCELFA, Otunba Basirat Naibi,
said the conference, which her group organized in conjunction
with NLC and ASUU, in the culmination
of its long held desire ‘’to provide the much needed tangible
support and solidarity towards the liberation of the Saharawi
people, from the shackles of the colonialism and human rights
abuses by the Moroccan Government’’She added that ‘’the World
should know that, gone are the
days when African women are indiferent to the suffering of our
Saharawi brothers and sisters in
colonial bondage.Let this conference be the catalyst
that International community needs to galvanize global action in
heralding the death knell of the last colony in our beloved
continent’’.
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