A former United States Mayor, Mike Arnold, has declared that Nigeria is at a crossroads, noting that the country is facing two scenarios where, according to him, people are not treated for the same alleged offences committed.
Arnold, Founder and Chairman of Africa Arise International, Nigeria, and Africa Arise USA, made the assertion in a presentation at a hearing by the US Congress.
Tracing Nigeria’s history, from pre-colonial times to the present day, Arnold expressed concern that Nigerian authorities are not doing enough to address the spread of radical Islamic insurgency in the country.
Listing, what he described as, “examples of ongoing failures and impunity” on the part of the Nigerian government, Arnold pointed to the prosecution and conviction of leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, to highlight the selective approach in handling southern self-determination activists and northern Islamist jihadists.
He urged the US Congress to “demand the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and other prisoners of conscience”, and “offer asylum protection to them and others threatened by this, Nigerian, regime”.
He also highlighted the recent upsurge in attacks by terrorists, dismissing what he described as the false narrative framing the violence as “farmer-herder” clashes.
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