The President Buhari-led federal government has been urged to return to its initial stand on free Palestinian State as against the stand the nation took under the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi in a handshake with President Goodluck Jonathan for a Ramadan Breakfast
Speaking during a one-day international conference on Palestine with the theme, “Palestine question; Issues, Challenges and Actions,” the Emir of Kano, Malam Muhammad Sanusi II, yesterday, called on the President Muhamamdu Buhari-led federal government to support free Palestinian state.
Sanusi who made a speech at the event organised by the Center for Promotion of Shari’a in collaboration with Jama’atut Tajdidil Islamiya and the Afro-Middle East Center, South Africa held in Kano, lamented that Goodluck Jonathan’s administration was to blame for the failure of Palestinian bid to put an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories at the UN Security Council.
Nigeria, which had earlier voiced support for Palestinian cause, took a different stand for the first time ever when it abstained from voting in December 2014 on a crucial United Nations Security Council resolution that would have ended Israel’s presence in the occupied territories by 2017.
Speaking on Wednesday, Emir Sanusi said it was sad that Nigeria had played a significant role in denying Palestine a crucial vote that would have ended Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip by 2017 and welcomed Palestine as a full UN Member State.
“For decades Nigeria has been in the support of free Palestine until during the Jonathan era when Nigeria played a vital role in the loss of Palestinian bid to put an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories at the UN Security Council. I believe it is time for Nigeria to revisit its stand on Palestine”, DailyPost quoted the Emir as saying.