*Slams HURIWA over support of the military bases
By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has expressed delight with the statement made by Alhaji Mohammed Idris, Minister of Information and National Orientation stating that the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has no plans to allow foreign military bases in Nigeria.
A statement issued by Prof. T. A. Muhammad-Baba, National Publicity Secretary of ACF yesterday, said, “The FGN must be appreciated for taking such a bold and reassuring stance. Every African must be proud of this development.”
For ACF, the statement added that the development is a victory for the imminently patriotic Nigerians who signalled readiness to campaign against the rumoured plans to host US and French military bases in Nigeria following their rejection in Republics of Burkina Faso and Niger.
Still on the issue, ACF said that it is greatly disappointed with a statement, credited to a supposedly non-governmental organisation concerned with promoting human rights, going by the name the Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA), supporting the possible establishment of the said military bases.
ACF said it finds such support patently shocking, shortsighted and against everything Nigeria stands for, saying, “We are an independent, sovereign African country in uncompromising solidarity with all sister African, especially ECOWAS, states in the struggle against all vestiges of the intolerable stranglehold of colonialism and neo-colonialism, that have for far too long continued to hold down Africa in conditions of underdevelopment.”
It added, “Enough is known about the experiences of countries like Burkina Faso and Niger that have hosted foreign military bases for years. Such bases have to date served only the interests of the advanced countries. Wheresoever they are located, the foreign military outposts operate outside of the control and in utter disregard for the national laws of their hosts, respecting only their own convenient rules.”
The statement explained that that sister African countries will, on the basis of their experience with the foreign military units, reject their presence is enough reason to dissuade Nigeria from even contemplate hosting them, stressing thag it does not make any sense that such bases as rejected by sister ECOWAS would be welcomed by any next-door neighbour.
“HURIWA ought to realise that the presence of the bases has undeniably failed to result in any demonstrable decline in the activities of terrorist and insurgent groups that have been wrecking political, economic and social conditions in the sister countries,” the statement emphasized.
The statement said, “For Nigeria, it is inescapable that whatever is unhelpful and/or detrimental to the interests of African countries cannot be good for us, due to shared destinies in unbroken historical, socio-cultural, economic and political ties which predated and antedates the artificial balkanisation of our societies by European colonial control.
“Africans will forever decry the imposition of ridiculous international boundaries, which often cut across the very heart of communities, as systematised at the infamous1884/1885 Berlin Conference at which no African country participated. It is thus instructive that the desire to establish the military bases emanate, not from African countries, but from the foreign powers themselves. It is as if the Berlin Conference is being up-dated and re-enacted now, in the 21st Century.”
ACF observed that HURIWA is being quixotic and perhaps delusional in thinking that military and civilian personnel in the bases would respect Nigerias sovereignty or help them fight terrorism and insurgency, pointing out that a good question to ask is where (and why now) have the foreign forces been all the while with the body counts in the thousands, recorded disrupted livelihoods, internally displaced populations.
ACF stated that it is also disappointing that HURIWA would seek to trivialise the patriotic call against foreign military bases as emanating from some Northern leaders, as if HURIWAS condemnation is itself, by equal measure, a southern” Nigerian agenda!
The forum noted that clearly the terrorism and banditry problem in Nigeria has gone beyond the prism of killer herdsmen and Boko Haram, as HURIWA would have it, saying that looking at the problem from such a simplistic and reductionist perspective is unhelpful in the fight against terrorism.
“Our security forces know this only too well. No one should be lulled into complacency, thinking that anybody but ourselves can solve the problem. Nigeria should not be tempted by Trojan Horse-promises from foreign interests that had, until now, at best remained benignly neglectful or uninterested in our insecurity woes,” the forum observed.
For ACF, the prospect for locating foreign military bases is disconcerting because their many consequences would impact on the lives of the people, and will only exacerbate and not reduce the security risks and threats that people of the North face.
ACF, therefore, commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubus governments denial of plans to host foreign military bases on Nigeria soil, while calling on the FGN to forever refuse to entertain, let alone accede, to requests to site any foreign military base in Nigeria.
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