“Block the sale of warplanes to Nigeria”: What is missing in an otherwise excellent NYT editorial
At last, a major news organisation in the United States/West has come out to challenge the deafening silence that has pervaded the world over the genocidist Muhammadu Buhari regime in Nigeria, installed in office in March 2015 by the David Cameron and Barack Obama administrations.
Today’s (Wednesday 18 May 2016) New York Times editorial has unambiguously called on the US government not to sell warplanes to the murderous regime. But it completely misses the compelling geographical focus of the crime against humanity being perpetrated by Buhari: it is not northeast/northcentral region of Nigeria in some “war” with Boko Haram/Fulani militants. No, itsn’t. Buhari is not “at war” with Boko Haram/Fulani militants. On the contrary, Buhari is an integral component of Boko Haram/Fulani militants.
Free-fire zone...
Muhammadu Buhari’s war, since his March 2015 imposition, is to the south of Nigeria – in Biafra, occupied by Nigeria since 13 January 1970. Buhari has continued the Nigerian state genocide against the Igbo people, fully supported by Britain, which he himself, as a lieutenant then in the genocidist army, has been a ruthless active participant right from the launch date, 29 May 1966. 3.1 million Igbo people, or one-quarter of this nation’s population, were murdered in the three phases of the genocide (foundational genocide of post-[European]conquest Africa) prior to 13 January 1970 and hundreds of thousands have been murdered subsequently, including those murdered since Buhari’s current position in power, especially beginning November 2015 and has continued unabated.
During this period, Buhari has essentially turned Biafra into a free-fire zone where his occupying troops and adjunct forces, Boko Haram and Fulani militants, have tactically picked and chosen where and when and what targeted firing range to murder the next Igbo child, woman or man as the grim record of the murders by the tripartite amalgam in the following population layouts in Biafran cities, towns and villages attest chronologically: Onicha … Igwe Ocha … Ubulu-Ukwu ... Asaba … Oka … Enuugwu … Aba … Igwe Ocha … Asaba … Enuugwu … Igwe Ocha … Onicha … Uzo-Uwani ... Onicha ...
Ban all arms sales/transfers to Nigeria
Buhari will surely use any US planes in his armoury against Biafra. Nowhere else. Buhari is very much aware of the sheer savagery of the carpet-bombing campaigns that Igbo population centres were subjected to (during October 1966-January 1970) by loaned Egyptian pilots flying Nigeria air force Soviet-supplied MiGs and looks forward, eagerly, to a repeat performance.
Besides denying Buhari planes to murder Biafrans, the New York Times and other public institutions and the US public in general should now intensify a principled demand on their government to ban all US arms sales/transfers to Nigeria. Any American bullet, pistol, rifle, grenade, rocket, bazooka, helicopter gunship, naval gunship, the fighter aircraft, the bomber, the tank…each and everyone of these items sent to the Buhari regime would be more likely than not deployed to murder Igbo people, one of the world’s most peaceful and resourceful peoples. The United States can no longer remain bystanders as this orgy of death is brazenly carried out in Biafra day in, day out.
* Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is visiting professor in graduate programme of constitutional law at Universidade de Fortaleza, Brazil. He specialises on the state and on genocide and wars in Africa in the post-1966 epoch, beginning with the Igbo genocide, 29 May 1966-12 January 1970, the foundational and most gruesome genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa. Among his books are Longest genocide - since 29 May 1966 (forthcoming, 2016), Readings from Reading: Essays on African Politics, Genocide, Literature (African Renaissance, 2011), Biafra Revisited (African Renaissance, 2006), African Literature in Defence of History: An Essay on Chinua Achebe (Michigan State University Press, 2001), Africa 2001: The State, Human Rights and the People (International Institute for African Research, 1993), and Conflict and Intervention in Africa (Macmillan, 1990).
* THE VIEWS OF THE ABOVE ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDITORIAL TEAM
* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS
* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!
* Please send comments to [email=[email protected]]editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org[/email] or comment online at Pambazuka News.