Nigeria Must Show Leadership As Big Brother Africa: We Must Start Holding Its Leader

The Continuous Illegal Detention of Ambazonian Leaders in Nigeria; What is Mohammadu Buhari up to?

The Buhari Administration, of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, appears to have purposely or inadvertently immersed itself into the murky waters of the political brouhaha between the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and La Republic du Cameroun (LRC). This is evident in the illegal arrest and continuous detention incommunicado of the interim President of Ambazonia and his 11 collaborators for 15 days today, in flagrant violation of the Nigerian Constitution and related laws.

Whether the Buhari administration intentionally involved itself in this crisis considering Nigeria’s interest in the matter or it greedily allowed itself to be dragged into it by LRC du Cameroun; one thing is clear, Nigeria, will now have to play a leading role in defining the outcome of the crisis based on its root causes, OR becomes entangled in a difficult relationship between LRC and Ambazonia in the Northern and Southern parts of the country respectively.

It obviously seems to be this dilemma in which President Buhari finds himself, that has prompted his administration to unlawfully and continuously keep the President of the interim government of Ambazonia and his collaborators, without any charge for this long (a strange phenomenon within the Nigerian judiciary, though not strange so far as Buhari in person is concern). At this juncture of the quagmire, what is he (Buhari) therefore up to? Is he going to compensate Sissiku and his team for the illegal detention in blatant rape of his own constitution and laws Or Is he going to continuously violate the Nigerian Constitution and hand the leaders over to his colonialist friend Paul Biya, as he (Biya) is now requesting?

Few days behind, the Nigerian Police in an embarrassing release was quoted as saying that, “the government of Nigeria cannot be seen to be habouring separatists from a neighboring Country like Cameroon when both countries are cooperating and jointly fighting to uproot Boko Haram terrorists who are insurgents trying to impose their own Islamic state in the North east. “Moreover, it is common knowledge that the federal government of Nigeria recently clamped down on the illegal activities of the IPOB (Independent Peoples of Biafra). So how can the territory of Nigeria be used to train separatists to cause civil disobedience in such a friendly country.”

BaretaNews, takes note of the fact that the above words from the Nigerian police are the direct words of Professor Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs. He made these statements at the UN headquarters in New York while responding to questions from Inner City Press correspondent, during a Press Conference after the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly.

By the time these statements were made, Nigeria had granted political asylum to these same supposed secessionists; Nigeria had hosted three conclaves of these same secessionists; and the Nigerian Minister of foreign affairs had even received several memorandums from the secessionists’ Governing Council; Nigeria even hosted without objection, the then governing council, led by the same Sissiku Ayuk Tabe, and others who are currently being illegally detained.

Since the declaration of the restoration of the independence of Ambazonia on the 1st October, 2017, Nigeria has hosted the stormy secessionist fourth conclave that produced the interim government, led by Sissiku Ayuk-Tabe and Nigeria has also been host to this same interim government until now.

So, with all these supposed secessionists’ threats then, and the leaders moved freely within Nigeria and sometimes even with security details; what then has suddenly change to make their secessionist threats real to the Nigerian state? Has the fact that LRC has no Treaty of Union with Southern Cameroons Ambazonia changed? Has the Federal Court of Appeal Abuja, overturn the 2002 judgment delivered by the Federal High Court, Abuja in favour of the independence of Ambazonia? Or is it hard dollar notes have changed hands between Yaoundé and Abuja?

To further embarrass the Nigerian government and her people, the Nigerian Police added that the arrested President of Ambazonia and his collaborators “were caught red-handed within the training camps for separatist members for future confrontation with the Cameroonian authorities”.

While Ambazonians and other reasonable sympathizers who understand the circumstances of the illegal abductions, ponder and try to establish the correlation between Nera Hotel Abuja and being “caught red-handed within training camps,” one may think that the above accusation by the Nigerian police is linked to the 39 Ambazonians recently arrested in Taraba State, allegedly receiving training on how to shoot guns. Of course, it is on record by the spoke person of the Taraba police Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police, David Missal, that “there were no incriminating weapons found on the 39 detainees”

BaretaNews, can only call on the Nigerian state to live up to her responsibility as a democratic state that operates on the rule of law, different from the caricature and dictatorial system operated in LRC.

BaretaNews, wishes to further remind the Nigerian state that, the story of Ambazonia is completely dichotomous to the story of Biafra. Ambazonia is already an independent state seeking the restoration of its lost independence to a colonial State called LRC. She must therefore show leadership in ensuring that Ambazonia gets justice from LRC. This will not only help preserve the lives of the innocent population currently living as refugees in Nigeria, but it will save Nigeria the burden of taken care of these people who are victims of diplomatic hypocrisy and an international conspiracy against them and their territory.

James Agbor, BaretaNews Political Analyst