Two organs of the United Nations (UN) have denounced an ultimatum issued by members of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum for demanding that Igbo resident in all parts of northern Nigeria vacate the area by October 1, 2017. The two UN bodies also condemned death threats targeting members of Nigeria’s Igbo ethnicity.
On June 6, 2017, the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum issued the ultimatum at a press conference in Kaduna, capital of Kaduna State. Despite calls by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna for the arrest of those who issued the ultimatum, the police and other security agencies declined to act.
Ohaneze Ndigbo
Last week, the Arewa Youth Forum formally withdrew the ultimatum, with some of its members citing pressure from President Muhammadu Buhari for their soft-pedaling.
However, in a statement released in Geneva, Switzerland on August 25, 2017, the office of the UN Human Rights described the ultimatum to the Igbo to flee the north as a matter of “grave concern.”
The UN experts who issued the report on the plight of the Igbo also voiced concerns over an anti-Igbo hate song and audio message that had gone viral on social media. The hateful message, which is spoken in Hausa, encourages northerners to destroy Igbo property in the north and kill Igbo who fail to leave by October 1. The UN experts said they were “gravely concerned about this proliferation of hate messages and incitement to violence against the Igbo and their property, especially considering the previous history of such violence.”
The experts urged the Nigerian government to “be vigilant, as hate speech and incitement can endanger social cohesion and threaten peace by deepening the existing tensions between Nigeria’s ethnic communities.”
After noting that some local and national officials, as well as media reps, had condemned the ultimatum, the UN experts said they were worried by some officials’ silence. “We are deeply concerned that some prominent local leaders and elders have not condemned the ultimatum, hate speech, and the perpetrators,” said the UN statement. It added: “We call on the Government, media and civil society representatives, and local and religious leaders, to reject and condemn hate speech and incitement to violence unequivocally and in the strongest possible terms.”
The UN also demanded an official investigation of those behind the incitement to violence in order to unmask the perpetrators for prosecution and punishment. According to the UN, those to be identified must include “the people behind the ultimatum and those responsible for the creation, publication, and circulation of the hate song and audio message.”
The UN experts who authored the statement included Mr. Mutuma Ruteere, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Mr. Fernand de Varennes, Special Rapporteur on minority issues, and Ms. Anastasia Crickley, Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Following the UN experts’ report, the
