President Muhammadu Buhari is set to participate in the United Nations General Assembly’s 76th Session in the United States, amidst insecurity and gross human rights under his administration.
SaharaReporters gathered that the President will depart Abuja on Sunday, September 19 to attend the conference which will be declared open on Tuesday, September 14.
The conference will end on September 27, 2021.
“The team going with him (Buhari) to the USA for the United Nations General Assembly leaves on Tuesday. The President will leave Abuja next Sunday to join them,” a presidential source told SaharaReporters.
SaharaReporters had earlier in the month reported how Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, among other officials, travelled to the US to infiltrate the ranks of Nigeria’s self-determination groups, which earlier announced that they would storm the UN Assembly with demands for a referendum.
A top source had said that while Buhari would be attending the UN Assembly, the entourage led by Gambari, who is a diplomat and former top UN official, was sent ahead to weaken the strengths of the agitation groups before the President’s arrival.
“The UN programme is starting on September 18. The Chief of Staff is leaving for USA tomorrow (Thursday) with some people working with him, including his personal Assistant, Luqman Bosun Emiola. No one knows when they will be back but they are not supposed to have any business with the President’s trip.
“Buhari will be attending the UN General Assembly but the Chief of Staff already left,” the source had said.
SaharaReporters had on August 11 reported that agitation groups in the country under the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS) said they would hold a one million march at the UN Headquarters in New York, to reiterate the demand for a referendum on self-determination and abolition of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria.
NINAS is an umbrella body of self-determination movements in the South-South, South-East, Middle Belt and South-West (Ilana Omo Oodua).
The one million march is scheduled to hold between September 14 and 21, 2021 when the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly would hold in the United States.
Despite being a former Army General, the level of insecurity under Buhari’s administration has worsened, with virtually all parts of the country currently battling one form of violent crimes or another.
The Global Terrorism Index (2019) ranked Nigeria as the third-worst nation prone to terrorism, with no improvement since 2017.
Aside from insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and secessionist violence are pushing Nigeria towards the brink of collapse, with many calling for the resignation of the President for “failing” to secure the country.
Using security operatives, the Buhari-led government is also known for harassing, assaulting and intimidating journalists, human rights activists, protesters, and critics of the government.
The government has also shown hostility to Nigerian Judges and indifference to court judgments and orders, thereby seriously undermining their standing and authority, and the notion of access to justice.
His administration simply ignores court judgments and orders.
Buhari has literally normalised disobedience to court orders, and state-sanctioned brutality against peaceful protesters.
The administration also continues to violate human rights with impunity.
