Warns Nigeria Against Trading with Morocco
By Esther Atani, The Sight News
The colonization of Western Sahara is the colonization of Africa and the process of African freedom can not be complete until all African nations are free.
This was the statement made by the Coordinator and Leader of the Nigerian Movement for the Liberation of Western Sahara (NMLWS) and former president of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr Oladipo Fashina, at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday.
The press conference was held to reiterate the unflinching support of the NMLWS, the NLC and other unions to the Western Saharawi people.
In his address, Dr Oladipo Fashina gave a warning to companies in Nigeria engaged in importing phosphate, sardines and fertilizers illegally exploited from Western Sahara to cease such activities, as it perpetuated the colonization of a sovereign African nation.
He stated that companies responsible for importing, distributing and marketing these illegally obtained resources will be picketed and brought to court.
He condemned the federal government of Nigeria, for allowing a trade agreement with Morocco, that facilitated the importation of illegally mined resources from Sahara Arab Democratic Republic ({SADR}, also known as Western Sahara) into the country even though in 1984, Nigeria under General Muhammadu Buhari, recognized the Western Sahara as an independent African country.
Also speaking, Femi Falana (SAN), lawyer of the SADR in Africa stated that Western Sahara will take the legal battle to the doorstep of countries and companies complicit in the continued exploitation of their country through continued economic cooperation with Morocco.
He demanded that the African Union take more decisive steps in sanctioning Morocco’s continued occupancy of the SADR and that the Federal Government end its illegal trading agreement with Morocco.
Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, President of ASUU, who was also at the conference pledged ASUU’s support and called on the media to take the message of the Western Saharawi nation beyond the shores of Nigeria to the world.
