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Nigeria Rejects UN Involvement in Delta,
Greece Likes Ban's No Comment, NY Bricks Are Thrown
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
December 10 -- What country wants
to be the subject of the UN's focus? Not Nigeria. Over plates of spicy
fish,
tubers and spinach, Permanent Representative Joy Ogwu answered
questions on
Wednesday afternoon, in the Nigerian missions two-story penthouse
banquet hall
across from the UN. Inner City Press asked what engagement if any
Nigeria wants
from the UN about the Niger Delta. None, Ms. Ogwu said. We don't need
the UN.
We are fully in control of our territory.
But what
about the invitation of Ibrahim Gambari, UN Under-Secretary General, to
help
mediate the conflict? He was invited not
as any representative of the UN, but as a former Nigerian diplomat, Ms.
Owgu
said.
But at the
time, the UN took some credit for the invitation that Nigeria made.
[Just as the UN Development Program brags of its involvement, with
multinational oil companies, in the Niger Delta; we note without yet
commenting that UNDP rents the fourth floor of Nigeria House in New
York.]
It seems
there are two competing interests here: the UN Secretariat's interest
in being
seen as relevant, and a country like Nigeria's interest in being seen
as
sovereign and not needing UN help. Usually these conflicts are managed
without
any difference becoming public.
Ms. Ogwu and Mr. Gambari, sovereignty
preserved
Take, for
example, the Secretariat's "no comment" on the shooting and riots in
Greece, on which we inquired
and reported yesterday. Today the argument is made
that it is not only Greece, but Europe and some other regions on which
the UN
does not comment. Africa, we're told, is different, because the
problems are
more constant. But Nigeria, for example, does not want UN involvement.
Perhaps
no one does, except in cases of terrorist attacks -- in which now, for
example,
India is asking the Security Council to put Jamaat ud Dawa on its
terror
sanctions list. So which country's desires are disregarded, and on what
basis?
We'll end,
rather than with more analysis, with fact: Inner City Press is informed
that
Wednesday at 5 a.m., the Greek consulate in New York had a brick thrown
through
the window, and graffiti on the wall, "Alex was here," the name of
the boy shot dead Saturday in Athens. Later on Wednesday, protesters
assembled,
reportedly mostly not Greek. Inner City
Press asked, might they be from FYROM?
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