When You Abuse Your Sovereignty, You Invite External Intervention
Tony Nnadi, Lower Niger Congress (LNC), 24 November 2022
(First published December 15, 2019 on the situation in Cameroon)
Editor’s comments:
In the NOTES section, I include a link to a short read, the “RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT” from the United Nation’s Office on Genocide Prevention And The Responsibility To Protect”, because there is a moral obligation particularly for Nigerians abroad, but also for those in the country who call themselves educated, to know their responsibilities when a situation like Nigeria is happening, and to ACT accordingly. The church, the media, the Nigeria Bar Association, those in academia, especially must get involved. Quoting from the document mentioned,
“…The international community, through the United Nations, also has the responsibility to use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means, in accordance with Chapters VI and VIII of the Charter, to help protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity [emphasis added]. In this context, we are prepared to take collective action, in a timely and decisive manner…”
Our people need us to care enough, to stop the slaughter.
Following current developments in Cameroon, many enquiries have been received by the Secretariat of the Lower Niger Congress (LNC). The Secretary-General of the LNC, Tony Nnadi in response to some of the enquiries wrote as follows:
“When you abuse your Sovereignty by levying war on a part of your own country, or committing genocide or ethnic cleansing or other acts that are classified as crimes against humanity, against your own citizens, like Cameroon and Nigeria have been doing, you are inviting the International Community to intervene in your Sovereign Space to restore sanity.
That intervention may be by the UN [United Nations] or by a country that has the capacity to move into that space to arrest the situation.
That intervention could take the form of removing the perpetrator(s) of the crime from power, as we saw Tanzania do in Idi Amin-era Uganda, or the partitioning of the distressed country as we saw in the former Yugoslavia and recently, in Sudan.
In addition to the general uproar that has taken the form of various agitations in Nigeria against the aggressions of the Nigerian State, it would be recalled that between January and July of 2019, the searchlights of Washington DC were beamed on the ethnic cleansing and other atrocities of Nigeria as highlighted by the January 17, 2019 Emergency Press Conferences on Nigeria in Washington DC, leading to detailed expositions at the June-July 2019 IRF Ministerial Roundtables on Capitol Hill and the subsequent spotlight-event on Nigeria by US State Department on the sidelines of the IRF Ministerials.
Here are the links to some of the presentations at the aforementioned January 17, 2019 Emergency Press Conferences on Nigeria under the Theme: “Nigeria at breaking point”, where serious concerns were also raised about the build-up of the ISIS-backed global Islamic Caliphate in Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin.
LNC’s Tony Nnadi at the National Press Club in Washington DC
Video: Frank Gaffney, introducing the Segment of Coordinated Press Conferences on Nigeria at the National Press Club, Washington DC, January 17, 2019 with the theme: Nigeria at breaking point
It will also be recalled that in August 2019, a UN Special Rapporteur on Nigeria described the constitutional arrangement and prevailing situation in Nigeria as: “A pressure-cooker for injustice” posing a threat of immense proportions to the global community if not addressed soon enough.
The situation in the Nigeria is on largely the same trajectory (in fact, more grievous in terms of magnitude and complexity), as that of Cameroon which has prompted the US intervention under review”.
Tony Nnadi
Lower Niger Congress
NOTES:
RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT, United Nation’s Office on Genocide Prevention And The Responsibility To Protect
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This is the information age, so there is a lot of information on the internet about genocides and what HUMAN BEINGS can do to prevent it, or stop it when it has loaded - as is the case in Nigeria.
We see Nigerians in the Diaspora making themselves available to meet with visiting Nigerian politicians, including those hoping for, and gunning for Elections 2023. So, they are also able to get involved in actions that will get the International Community to stop the slaughter in Nigeria. It is a human duty to care about the lives and sufferings of other people.