In the copy of a letter which was sent to The Guardian, yesterday, by Kanu’s Special Counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, Fein queried Laing, saying: “I was astonished if not appalled by your May 12 tweet. You voiced delight at meeting with Obiozor of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and other senior leaders from the South East. Why the delight or the meeting?”
Fein further stated: “Instead of supporting a united lawless Nigeria, amalgamated by the British for ulterior motives, you should be advocating a United Kingdom (UK) suit against Nigeria in the International Court of Justice for denying the people of Biafra a self-determination referendum as required by Article I of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and an infinite number of corresponding human rights treaties and resolutions.
“Even more reprehensible was your tacit enthusiasm for a united Nigeria, indistinguishable from a suicide pact for Biafrans. As you know, Nigeria was created by UK, forcefully, in 1914.
“Following its divide-and-conquer colonisation policy, the UK forced the Biafran people, with a right to self-determination, against their will into a mixture of incompatible ethnic groups under the umbrella of UK sovereignty.
“The UK decamped in 1960, leaving Nigeria poised to explode.”
The letter further argued: “A jus cogens (basic but unwritten interventional customary law, below which no nation is allowed to operate, or that binds all nations) norm of international law endows the Biafran people with a right to self-determination against a Fulani-controlled Nigerian government that has excluded Biafrans, but a handful of defectors, from the corridors of power.
“One fact speaks volumes. No Fulani has ever been prosecuted and punished for murdering a Biafran in the history of Nigeria!
“Self-determination stands at the apex of all internationally recognised human rights because it is preservative of all others.”
Self-determination is a shield against oppression by the tyranny of the majority or the ruthless.
“The UK insisted on self-determination for Protestant Northern Ireland to forestall probable persecution by the Roman Catholic Republic of Ireland. It supported a 2011 South Sudan self-determination referendum to redress the persecution of the largely black, Christian-animist minority in Sudan by the Arab-Muslim governing majority.
