My Naija News - AC criticises Yar’Adua’s volte face on AFRICOM

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AC criticises Yar’Adua’s volte face on AFRICOM

Written by News Hound

Monday, 17 December 2007

The Action Congress (AC) has said President Umaru Yar’Adua will be elevating expediency over Nigeria’s sovereignty, if indeed his apparently arm-twisted endorsement of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) is true.

In a statement issued in Abuja Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said such a volte face would be condemnable, especially since the AC has it on good authority that President Yar’Adua succumbed to the allure of US recognition of his illegitimate administration in
endorsing the controversial AFRICOM.

"The spectre of a President who will do anything to hang onto power, no matter how llegitimately obtained, is saddening and it is definitely not the stuff of which great leaders are made`, AC said"

The party said the tepid denial of the endorsement by the President, in an interview with the Hausa Service of the VOA, was not enough to mitigate the confusion created by the reported White House endorsement.

"President Yar’Adua’s purported support for AFRICOM was widely reported by the world media. Therefore, any denial must be made available to the same platform for it to be credible.

"The President must also go beyond such denial to assure Nigerians that they have not been dragged into
a quagmire with the controversial support for the equally controversial AFRICOM.

"This is particularly important considering that the decision rejecting AFRICOM was taken after a National Council of State meeting and announced with fanfare by a state governor, speaking on behalf of the President," AC said.

The party said the agenda of AFRICOM is to station American military forces in Africa, through the
establishment of military bases in the Gulf of Guinea, which includes our own Niger Delta – an area which sits atop a stupendous oil reserve greater than that of the entire Middle East.

"What other rationale can the U.S. have for establishing military bases in this area if not to control the oil? Granting the US permission to establish a military base in Nigeria or near the Nigerian territory will only increase the vulnerability of our country to terrorist attacks as evident from the wave of terrorism in countries who harbour American forces such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, just to mention a few.

"Furthermore, allowing the US to establish a military base in the Gulf of Guinea can only worsen the problem of the Niger Delta. Given the US interest in Nigeria’s oil and the U.S. penchant for eddlesomeness, thesetting up of a military base in the oil region will internationalise the crisis and make Nigeria to lose whatever control it has over it, with dire consequences for its sovereignty.

"We agree totally with the editorial opinion of the Vanguard of Thursday 13th December, 2007 that it is
impossible for any government in this country to ignore the fact that almost half of our citizens are
Moslems and they do not subscribe to branding any of their brothers anywhere as terrorists, as the US has been doing since the start of its war on terrorism.

"We also endorse the position of the editorial that it will be fool hardy for any Nigerian government to
ignore the fact that no government that has accepted the protection of the US, including Afghanistan,
Pakistan and Turkey which has a large percentage of Muslims, has experienced peace since the early 1990s.

In fact all such countries ha ve had cause to regret their romance with the U.S.

"We therefore call on the National Assembly not to allow the President to sign this AFRICOM treaty, which will be tantamount to signing away Nigeria’s sovereignty," AC said.

"If however it is true the President has not endorsed AFRICOM, he should say so unequivocally," the party added.

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Comments (1)

	1. Written by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it on 25-12-2007 15:21 - Guest
	AFRICOM IT IS TRUE THAT ALLOWING AMERICA TO SET UP A MILITARY BASE IN NIGERIA O WILL ATTRACT TERRORISM TO NIGERIA BECAUSE THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS SHOWN THE WHOLE WORLD THE REAL INTENTION OF THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT PURPOSE OF WANTING TO PROTECT OR TOPPLE A GOVERNMENT.SOMETIMES IT IS FOR WMD AND OTHER TIMES ITS FOR TERRORISM.IN A NUTSHELL WHAT AM SAYING IS THAT ITS A NO NO FOR THIS STUPID VENTURE THE AMERICAN ARE ATTEMPTING. HAVING SAID THAT I WANT TO POINT OUT THE SOMETHING THAT WAS SAID IN THIS PAGE ABOVE THAT IN NIGERIA ALMOST HALF ITS POPULATION ARE MOSLIM AND WILL NOT FANCY THAT AMERICA WHO BRANDS SOME OF THEIR BROTHERS AS TERRORIST HAS A PLACE IN NIGERIA. WELL I WANT TO SAY THIS TO THE RELIGIOUS FANATICS THAT LIVE IN NIGERIA NORTH THAT BLACK MOSLIMS ARE SEEN AS INFERIOR MOSLIMS IN MOST ARAB COUNTRIES THAT ARE PREDOMINANTLY MOSLIMS PLACES LIKE IRAN,IRAQ,AFGHANISTAN TURKEY TO SAY A FEW BLACK ARE SEEN IN THIS PART OF THE ARAB WORLD AS SECOND CLASS MOSLIMS .ALSO IN SUDAN VERY CLOSE TO NIGERIA ARAB MOSLIMS ARE KILLING BLACK MOSLIMS AND THE HAVE THE BACKING OF THE MIDDLE EAST BECAUSE NO TRUE MOSLIM WILL EVER CONDEMN THE ACTIONS OF ARABS THE HOLY PROPHET CHOSEN PEOPLE. I DONT BELIEVE THAT AMERICA SAYING ISLAMIC EXTREEMIST ARE TERRORIST WHICH THEY TRULY ARE SHOULD GIVE RIGHT TO THE SENSELESS KILLING OF CHRISTAINS IN NIGERIA.

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