The coalition of Nigerian Movements Against the US-CUBA blocked has in a letter to the NIGERIA'S federal government demanded the country voted against the blockade at the UN general assembly.
In a letter tittles " Need for Nigeria to vote for an end to the blockade of Cuba at the United Nations General Assembly" addressed to Geoffrey Onyeama who is the incumbent Honourable Minister of the country's foreign affairs ministry, the coalition expresses desire and the hope of millions of the Nigerian people that the country should vote at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, June 23, 2021 for the resolution demanding a final end to the blockade against Cuba imposed by the United States since February 7, 1962.
The coalition said: " This final push is necessary because the American establishment has treated with contempt, the 28 resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly condemning the blockade".
Read the full letter:
NIGERIA MOVEMENT
OF SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA
c/o Pascal Bafyau Labour House, NLC Headquarters, FCT Abuja
E-mail: [email protected]
22ND JUNE 2021
WE ARE A COALITION OF NIGERIANS AGAINST AMERICAN BLOCKADE OF CUBA!
COPIED: The United Nations General Assembly, c/o UN Office, Abuja-Nigeria.
His Excellency Geoffrey Onyeama.
The Honourable Minister
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Tafawa Balewa building
Federal Secretariat
Central Business District
Abuja- Nigeria.
Your Excellency,
Need for Nigeria to vote for an end to the blockade of Cuba at the United Nations General Assembly
We, a coalition comprising the two labour centres in the country; the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC ) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), radical progressive groups, intellectuals in the Academic unions, Civil Society and Human Rights organisations organised as the Nigerian Movement of Solidarity with Cuba, bring you greetings.
We write to express our desire and the hope of millions of the Nigerian people that our country should vote at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, June 23, 2021 for the resolution demanding a final end to the blockade against Cuba imposed by the United States since February 7, 1962. This final push is necessary because the American establishment has treated with contempt, the 28 resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly condemning the blockade.
Your Excellency, Nigeria as a country has consistently voted against the blockade, and at this final stage, we need to make our vote emphatic. This will be in line with the February 7, 2021 Resolution of the African Union (AU) Heads of State Summit, which in declaring “its solidarity with the People of Cuba” also expressed: “serious concern about the continuous and illegal Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.”
Needless to remind Your Excellency that Nigeria’s principled opposition against the blockade is basically in line with the very reason why the United Nations was established in 1945. Specifically, the United Nations Charter and Resolutions (Chapter 1, Article 1, part 2) states that the purpose of the UN Charter is: "To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace."
The right of all countries to self-determination which the US is challenging by its unilateral blockade of Cuba for six decades now, is sacrosanct. It was this principle Nigeria stood for in ensuring independence for all countries particularly in the bloody liberation wars in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. We need not remind ourselves of the fact that thousands of Cuban youths laid down their precious lives on the African soil fighting the forces of Apartheid and militarily defeating them to ensure the liberation of our continent.
Your Excellency, the US blockage against Cuba is tantamount to genocide as it blocks that country from free trade including freely importing and exporting goods, using credit from financial institutions or import life-saving medicines including for the Covid-19 pandemic. At the outbreak of the pandemic, the Chinese business mogul, Jack Ma sent life-saving medicines and emergency Covid-19 materials to various countries including Nigeria and Cuba. While all beneficiary countries received the aid, Cuba was denied because the American embargo forbids airlines delivering such aid to the Cubans.
In financial terms, the accumulated quantifiable cost of the blockade to Cuba over the past sixty years is $1,098,008,000,000. No country can be subjected to such haemorrhage and remain financially healthy.
Your Excellency, we urge our country not just to vote to tear down the walls of the American blockade, but also to give leadership to the African continent in delivering a strong ‘Yes’ vote against this unilateral and inhuman blockade against a sister country with ancestral roots in Africa.
As we look forward to positive results in this universal struggle for human liberation, please accept our high regards.
FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE COALITION OF NIGERIANS AGAINST AMERICAN BLOCKADE OF CUBA.
Comrade Abiodun Aremu
For and on behalf of the Nigerian Movement of Solidarity with Cuba
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