EP 7 African News Review I Adesoji Speaks Knowledge 🌍

This week's conversation hosted by Adesoji Iginla featured special guest Azubuikwe Madujibeya covered the South African elections, the impact of historical ties, the struggle against apartheid, economic and political freedom, ANC's failure, compensation for apartheid victims, infrastructure development, discrimination, ANC's credibility, and international support for Palestine. 
The conversation covers a wide range of topics, including the historical context of Palestine, the role of the ICC, the situation in Haiti, and the involvement of the United Arab Emirates in Sudan. It also delves into the impact of climate change on food security and the geopolitical strategies of various countries. 
The episode went into  covers a wide range of global issues, including conflicts in Yemen, Sudan's gold trade, external interference in Palestine, exploitation of resources in Congo, and the treatment of migrants in North Africa. 
It also delves into the role of international organizations and the media in shaping narratives and addressing human rights violations.

00:00 The Impact of Historical Ties on South African Elections
05:30 The Struggle Against Apartheid and Its Impact on Economic and Political Freedom
08:56 The Failure of ANC to Deliver on Its Promises
10:14 The Need for Compensation for Apartheid Victims
25:10 The Credibility of ANC and International Support for Palestine
26:37 Historical Parallels and Conflict Resolution
30:53 Challenges of the ICC and Accountability
35:32 The Complex Situation in Haiti
36:27 Geopolitical Strategies: United Arab Emirates and Sudan
48:57 Climate Change and Food Security
51:46 Interconnected Global Conflicts and Exploitation
56:51 Role of International Organizations and Media Narratives
01:08:36 Migrant Treatment in North Africa
01:13:09 Struggle for Self-Determination

Transcript

Adesoji Iginla (00:03.086)
Yes. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening, wherever you are in the world and welcome again to Adesoggi Speaks. As you've spotted, Brother Milton is not in the house today, but filling his quite sizable boots is the man himself, the Eagle of God, as we will call him, Azubuike Majubuya.

Azuwuike (00:21.722)
you

Adesoji Iginla (00:29.07)
And he is going to help me look through the week in the Western press, its impact on our continent and Africans in the diaspora and help us to, you know, pass what we've been able to see in the last couple of weeks. And so our first story is South Africa.

Why South Africa? South Africa is having their election May 29. And it will be a pivotal election considering it's 30 years since the first one in 1994. And so by this time, there's a lot riding on it. But before I go on at least, let's get Brother Azubu Kwe to you.

to give us his initial take on what he considers to be the issue that's played in the South African elections. Over to you, brother.

Azuwuike (01:36.89)
Yes, good evening. Thank you, Adesoti. My name is Azuike Madidjibaya. I'm filling in for Professor Milton, so big shoes, as Adesoti said. So yes, today as we both live in the UK, we're trying to make sense of all of the stories that are current, that have historical ties, links.

Adesoji Iginla (01:46.734)
Hahaha!

Azuwuike (02:05.114)
there's a political dynamic to all of these stories and they affect everybody even if you don't know that they affect everybody as we know in the 90s brothers and sisters after a long struggle and Madiba Nelson Mandela decades long incarceration was released not without not because of the

good nature of the South Africans with FWD clerk presiding over his release. Behind the scenes, we know there were wars raging for the liberation of these brothers and sisters against this apartheid state, a Dutch word apartheid, which means separate, to segregate. As we know, the origins of this segregation was against our brothers and sisters in the diaspora that we call United States of America.

and theirs is called Jim Crow. So, our brothers and sisters, their segregation started in 1948. This is when it was imposed upon them. And that long struggle led ultimately to the release of Nelson Mandela from prison with the assistance of international friends in Palestine, in Cuba, to name two.

Adesoji Iginla (03:22.222)
Yep. Yep.

Adesoji Iginla (03:30.638)
Correct? Correct.

Azuwuike (03:34.426)
And on the continent itself, there was just a large amount of assistance given by brothers and sisters on the continent to their southern brethren. So there has been a bit of disillusionment, understandably so, by the younger generation of people who don't know their history. And the continent is replete with young generation of African people who haven't been allowed to know their history.

by government edict in the country there. Our parents, yourself and myself, we come from the country called Nigeria. I often say this is a false creation by the British in 1914 as we know. And speaking to our own relatives, you were fortunate enough to be educated there. I was born and raised here in the UK. So I didn't get that grounding in our own history.

Adesoji Iginla (04:16.334)
True, true, true, very much so, very much so.

Azuwuike (04:31.066)
And even if I was there, maybe I wouldn't have got it because history was banned in Nigeria, it wasn't taught. So what the South Africans are suffering from now is that they too don't know their own history. As they become more aware of the things that have happened and why are they not able to find jobs? Even just the simple things of having water. And we've been understanding no water in some areas for more than a year. I don't know how many people would...

Adesoji Iginla (04:58.542)
facts.

Azuwuike (05:01.786)
be able to survive in a modern, I use the word modern in air quotes, to describe a modern country, because we know we're still going through the turmoil of those long dark days. But no water, constant, or do they refer to them as power outages that they have? Yes. And it's in that context where people think that they ANC the African National Congress.

Adesoji Iginla (05:21.518)
our outages, yep, yep, yep.

Azuwuike (05:30.042)
have failed to deliver on the promise that their beloved father of the first republic of South Africa, Nasser Mandela, was unable to seize the day and really drive home those things which have elevated them into truly a free democratic country for everybody. That hasn't happened.

Adesoji Iginla (05:46.542)
Yeah, bo.

Adesoji Iginla (05:50.798)
But would you say he was dealt a good hand in terms of the foundation of the country itself, bearing in mind economically the country was already tanked due to the host of sanctions that was being placed on the country and the elements of economic flight at the time? But here is the problem.

The political power was transferred over, but economic power was held back. I mean, certain people were allowed into the proverbial garden, and we are now seeing the seeds of that not so... What's the word I'm looking for now? Not complete freedom. Yeah, yeah. It was political freedom, not economic. Exactly.

Azuwuike (06:25.594)
Was not. Yes. Yes.

Azuwuike (06:44.922)
Political freedom, political freedom, not economic freedom. Yes. So to use the metaphor or the analogy as we here in the UK, of African heritage, yourself and myself, we constitute four or 5 % in the UK totally. For people to understand, how would the larger demographic of people feel if the small percentage that we are owned?

Adesoji Iginla (07:00.462)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (07:11.694)
Mm -hmm.

Azuwuike (07:13.21)
70 to 80 percent of the land and the economic power. How would they feel? Because this is what it is in South Africa. The minority demographic, the European settlers, the descendants, have the largest proportion of the land and the economic power, which was deliberately left in their possession. This is the field in which Nelson Mandela was released into freedom and then had to navigate with all of the eyes of the West.

Adesoji Iginla (07:18.19)
Correct.

Azuwuike (07:42.65)
bearing down on him. So he had to look past his own term in office to say what is going to be the long view for our children. They will have to finish the job that he started. He was not able to to complete the job.

Adesoji Iginla (07:48.942)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (07:58.222)
Yeah, but now if we're to say, now, if we look at South Africa at the moment, would you say, would you give it 10%, 20 % in terms of 40%, 50 % in terms of pass rates? Because, I mean, personally, when I look at it, I often have this conversation with people and I say, why is it that, why is it that you...

Azuwuike (08:22.042)
Mm -hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (08:29.038)
You have a country with so much promise, and yet all you've given them is just false hopes, like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that had no teeth. Only recently we had a story where it was agreed that compensation will be paid to people who suffered aggression during apartheid.

and they still 120 odd million dollars. But yet there are people out here still waiting or in expectation that that compensation will be extended to them. Instead, the compensation form has been closed. Exactly.

Azuwuike (09:14.746)
This is similar to the Windrush debacle here in the UK. No different to the HR 40, the reparations case in the United States of America and in the Caribbean. They had to run with Caracol. 120 million is just what, that's just it. It doesn't even scratch my fingertip in what is owed to black South Africans.

Adesoji Iginla (09:20.846)
Yes, yes.

Adesoji Iginla (09:25.774)
in the United States. Exactly.

Adesoji Iginla (09:40.238)
to them in terms of harm that has been done to them.

Azuwuike (09:44.346)
Indeed. So to even begin to say, do I even give them a mark of how far, how well they behaved, how well they've done, how far they've come. Then we have to ask the simple questions. Are people able to eat? Are they able to educate themselves? Do they have decent housing? Do they have infrastructure that will enable them to move freely around in their own country? So transport networks.

these types of things, if those things are not there, trying to give them some sort of score, arbitrary score, doesn't seem to be of any value to me, to me at least. If we have, yeah. So if we can say that South Africa has been going in that direction, they're building roads, they're building infrastructure, they're building hospitals, they're building school facilities. However, they want to address these issues of education and medical.

Adesoji Iginla (10:24.814)
Correct? Correct? Correct? Correct? Yeah, no, no, no, I agree. I agree with that.

Azuwuike (10:45.85)
accessibility, they are not there. And this is the result of what we should look at. Do those things exist in South Africa? Of course, the answer is yes. Do they have it in hospitals? Yes. Where are they located? I'm sure they're located in the predominantly ethnic privileged societies, exactly. So if they can have them there, why not everywhere? And then you have the problem of the bias, the discrepancies in terms of...

Adesoji Iginla (10:46.99)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (11:00.862)
and privilege there is.

Azuwuike (11:14.202)
discrimination is still rampant in that country and we can see the inequalities in the outcomes job security is non -existent access to jobs doesn't exist whether you have a job or not so these things have to be addressed at the fundamental level and ANC have probably largely tried to not step on too many toes whilst trying to tell a piece

Adesoji Iginla (11:25.934)
doesn't exist, correct?

Adesoji Iginla (11:37.934)
Mm -hmm.

appease the ear.

Azuwuike (11:43.034)
their young Brezilians, their black South African populists to say things will change, things will change, things will change. People's time is going and things haven't changed for many of them. And so they become disillusioned with the process. And so fundamentally they're stuck between this notion of a democratic process, which isn't really a democratic process. And when we use the word, it becomes difficult to justify using the term democracy because it hasn't brought them any fruit.

So what's the purpose of it, which is what some people are saying. Why do we have to have a democracy if it doesn't yield us what we thought we were voting for?

Adesoji Iginla (12:11.662)
Sure. Sure.

Adesoji Iginla (12:19.534)
mean. One can also then extend the argument as saying it's the same privilege class, a bit with a different hue when it comes to skin color, that have engaged in so much corruption to the point where literally, with the exception of Mbeki,

Azuwuike (12:34.81)
Yes.

Azuwuike (12:43.226)
Mm -hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (12:44.43)
and maybe Mandela. The rest of them have been, you know, swimming in it as they would say. Zuma, you know, was found guilty. The exactly. Cyril Ramaphosa is found to have decided that his sofa is now his.

Azuwuike (12:51.45)
Yes.

Azuwuike (12:55.386)
So I'm guilty of contempt, of course, yes.

Azuwuike (13:07.962)
He's best friend.

Adesoji Iginla (13:12.494)
He's so far he's not his best friends in so many ways because apparently he can hold lots of money. You know, so you begin to see where the dissolution of the street is, is if you see people who look like you. And considering the fact that Cyril Ramaphosa was actually a union's guy.

Azuwuike (13:24.57)
Of course, of course.

Azuwuike (13:34.458)
Mmm.

Adesoji Iginla (13:36.398)
you will think a unions guy will understand the pain of the people. But no, instead, you know, he's become part of the money class. Now he's I mean, exactly. I mean, I heard one of his stomp speeches where he says, we are going to bring invest lots of money in the economy, lots of money. I'm like, no numbers, no plan.

Azuwuike (13:47.962)
But he was always there. He was always there.

Azuwuike (14:03.546)
Hehehehehe

Adesoji Iginla (14:06.542)
That is all you're going to tell them. Lots of money. Bruh, that's not how you do it. You tell people where the money's coming from. Either you're going to raise it on taxes or you're going to increase whatever you need to increase and then transfer the money into the needed part of the economy. But to say you're going to invest lots of money.

Azuwuike (14:12.666)
That's not how to do it.

Adesoji Iginla (14:36.59)
Bruh, that's Halo.

Azuwuike (14:37.435)
It's empty platitudes and empty rhetoric for a statesman who should know better. The recent presidential appointee in Guinea -Bissau, Ibrahim Tauré, what did he do? He cut the salary of all government officials by 30%.

Adesoji Iginla (14:40.654)
Mm -hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (14:48.622)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (14:55.534)
Mm -hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (15:01.742)
Wow.

Azuwuike (15:02.906)
30 %

Adesoji Iginla (15:04.558)
And he's still in the job?

Azuwuike (15:06.394)
and they all agreed to it.

They all agreed to it. No extravagance at the top. Therefore the people can see that they're in business. His term of office was supposed to be capped at three years. The people went and protested and said his term in office to...

Adesoji Iginla (15:11.214)
Wow, that's brilliant. That's brilliant.

Azuwuike (15:33.53)
to discharge his plan will take longer than three years, it will take five years if not ten. The people protesting outside his palace to say he must stay in office for longer. The people said so.

Adesoji Iginla (15:49.838)
Okay? But, I mean...

Azuwuike (15:52.442)
And people can see what he's doing because road construction has been rapid. So they can see with their own two eyes. This is what the brothers and sisters in South Africa don't see. They're not seeing the tangible.

Adesoji Iginla (15:59.726)
case. So.

Adesoji Iginla (16:06.254)
So now, if ANC is not pulling its weight, would you say there are credible options on the political terrain? That is a straw man argument.

Azuwuike (16:20.698)
UGH!

Azuwuike (16:27.322)
It's a can of worms. So we know that there are other parties there. They say that the number of parties, it reads like a list of credits in the movie.

Adesoji Iginla (16:29.998)
okay.

Adesoji Iginla (16:38.126)
okay let's just focus on two let's focus on two

Azuwuike (16:43.482)
Okay, there's the Democratic Alliance and we go to the next one and we go to the economic freedom fighters. Let's just stay at those two.

Adesoji Iginla (16:46.158)
Democratic Alliance.

Okay. So, okay. So, Democratic Alliance. Let's go. Let's start with Democratic Alliance.

What are their chances?

Azuwuike (16:59.274)
So, well, it's looking like in a political landscape where the ANZ held sway for so long and they've always seemed to have reached that 50 % or more in the vote share. This is going to be the first time they did not reach that vote share, which means they will have to form a coalition. So it will then be down to the two next parties, the Democratic Alliance and the EFF.

who are at 21 % and 11 % respectively according to the polling as to who the leading party will enter into an arrangement with. Now, in the EFF, we have many members, any of the parties have all been splintered groups from the ANC disillusioned with one thing or another. So the Democratic Alliance led by a former president of South Africa.

is leading, that's Jacob Zuma, and he will gather a lot of votes. He will gather a lot of votes. Now whether he has any good ideas to move an agenda for the country forward is open to debate. Younger people are sounding more and more like they're the only ones who have really tangible ideas which can then be implemented into...

concrete plans and that would be those in the EFF and therefore their rhetoric is completely different and it alarms many many people not just in South Africa but also in the wider political spectrum in countries around the world they say we don't like this because it sounds too revolutionary. Is it revolution that South Africa needs? Is it what they require? That's not for us to decide that can only be determined by the people on the ground.

Adesoji Iginla (18:27.214)
Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (18:53.742)
Choo choo choo.

Azuwuike (18:55.674)
If it bears them fruit, we can look what is happening in the Sahel. The party was taking their self -determination with the former French colonies, Mali, Guinea -Bissau, Niger Republic, Senegal are doing something similar with the recent election of President Fayyip, 44 years of age. So we have to give young people a chance to be participants in their own destiny. If they don't get that chance, they will continue to be disillusionment. So the ruling party...

Adesoji Iginla (19:04.462)
Mm. Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (19:22.286)
Okay.

Azuwuike (19:24.634)
I've got real problems on their hands. They cannot shut young people out. They cannot do that. And so they have to be dragged, kicking and screaming into the 21st century. That's my feeling at least anyway.

Adesoji Iginla (19:40.43)
So that's South Africa internals dynamics. Now let's say which gives us a very good segue into what South Africa has initiated. By that, I'm talking about the seeking of temporary measures with the International Court of Justice at The Hague.

Azuwuike (19:45.946)
Hmm.

Azuwuike (20:03.802)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (20:10.894)
And only last week, the court then ordered South Africa, Israel rather, to hold the Rafa offensive. And it reads, the ICJ ruled on South Africa's request for an order to immediately stop fighting in Gaza. The UN top court has ordered.

Israel to halt immediately its military offensive in Raffa, the southern Gaza town, to which more than one million Palestinians had fled fighting elsewhere in the Elk Cliff. Now this is the path that is missing. They were actually told to go there. They were told to go there. Exactly. In another issued in response to the urgent request bought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice,

Azuwuike (20:57.818)
that we're told to go there because it was safe, okay?

Adesoji Iginla (21:09.902)
said on Friday that conditions in Rafa were disastrous and that the situation had deteriorated sufficiently to issue new orders in the case. So.

The question is, when a case is brought, I mean, the initial case was temporary measures into, what was the, what was the,

Azuwuike (21:32.346)
to provide a report within 30 days as to the steps being taken to preserve evidence, to provide evidence and to preserve the evidence as to non -complicity in crimes of genocide, plausible genocide against the people in Gaza. Those reports were not provided by the Israeli government to the ICJ at all.

Adesoji Iginla (21:35.022)
Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (21:41.102)
Avoid.

Adesoji Iginla (21:52.206)
implausible jesson slide, yep. Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (22:00.878)
instead of double down.

Azuwuike (22:01.914)
Of course, only if they double down.

Adesoji Iginla (22:08.11)
Now, so the action in itself, the seeking of redress by South Africa has kicked into motion so many other moving parts, not least the action by the students on the American campuses, its impact on so many commencement speeches.

Azuwuike (22:25.338)
Mm -hmm.

Azuwuike (22:37.914)
Mm -hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (22:38.286)
in the UK where we're at, the kind of actions we've seen, the weekly march in London that draws millions of people every other Saturday, and not the least, the sittings in the universities as well.

Azuwuike (22:47.098)
Wheatley Wheatley, about this

Yeah.

Azuwuike (22:59.866)
well.

Adesoji Iginla (23:01.838)
So the question then is, are we seeing?

signs of what transpired when the apartheid government crumbled in

Azuwuike (23:16.634)
in the 1990s, 1980s.

Adesoji Iginla (23:17.774)
80s, 1980s, yeah.

Azuwuike (23:21.818)
Let's take a step back. Let's take a step back. One of our favorite historians, Dr. Gerald Horne, who holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of the Department of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston in Texas, was a student at Columbia University himself in the 1960s. And he protested at Columbia University against the Vietnam War.

Adesoji Iginla (23:40.654)
okay. The sin of the crime.

Azuwuike (23:51.738)
He found himself coming back to Columbia University in the 80s as a lawyer to render assistance, legal assistance to those students who were then protesting against apartheid in South Africa. And as we both know, Dr. Horn, one of our favorite historians and scholar of over 50 books by this point, is now a commentator as he used to be, a journalist as well. So when we take the long view of what this all pertains,

And it's not just the students protesting. We have Ireland, Spain, and Norway just this week, in the last few days, all formally recognising the state of Palestine. We have them.

Adesoji Iginla (24:28.622)
No way. Yeah. Recognizing.

Adesoji Iginla (24:37.198)
and hold our horses. Apparently, France is also considering.

Azuwuike (24:42.714)
we'll see where that goes. We have Nicaragua have also indicted Germany in their complicity and they have brought them to the ICJ for Germany support for Israel's actions. We also know Egypt have co -joined the case from South Africa against Israel, the state of Israel. So this is

Adesoji Iginla (24:44.942)
Heheheheh

Adesoji Iginla (24:58.99)
Mm. Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (25:04.174)
South Africa. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Azuwuike (25:10.97)
far reaching implications for the whole region. The border on the Rafa crossing on the Israeli side is closed by the Israeli government. So all of the aid trucks are still there. They can't get in.

Adesoji Iginla (25:25.582)
There was a skirmish this week.

Azuwuike (25:29.402)
Yes, yes it was. The destruction of many of the...

Adesoji Iginla (25:32.014)
involving Egyptian and Israeli, the first time they shot on each other since the seventies. So things are beginning to.

Azuwuike (25:39.93)
Well, then there was to get very, very fractious. And this is the kind of thing that people don't want to happen because then that will drag everybody into a conflict, which I think the Palestinians and especially their leadership that they voted for Hamas didn't want to be just written out of history if other countries are going to determine what's going to happen to them.

Adesoji Iginla (25:45.742)
Mm -hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (25:50.158)
Mm -hmm.

Azuwuike (26:09.434)
when they have no voice or no seat at the table because we've seen what that looks like in the Berlin conference or the Congo conference in 1884 in Germany as it relates to Africa. No Africans were involved and we know why we speak the languages that we speak. If the Palestinians are not allowed to have their own self -determination and they don't need our permission to be full human beings because they are full human beings, nobody can give that to them.

Adesoji Iginla (26:20.014)
Correct.

Adesoji Iginla (26:32.27)
Hmm.

Azuwuike (26:37.914)
If you continue to deny their ability to be themselves and govern themselves in the way that they see fit and to live in peace with everybody else that they had already been doing before the incursion or the colonial project which was imposed on them also in 1948, the parallel there with South Africa is there for everybody to understand. 1948 is a year to behold because we have two others I'll mention later.

Adesoji Iginla (26:58.51)
Yeah, exactly. Parallels. Parallels.

Yeah.

Azuwuike (27:07.738)
We should understand that this thing can only be resolved and we can use South Africa as the template. How did they manage to overcome the decades of segregation? One person, one vote. The state may not be the same name, but the people can still live in harmony. They can still live in peace. Now then that comes with, are you just covering and pickering over the arcs of...

Adesoji Iginla (27:22.478)
Hmm.

Azuwuike (27:33.946)
real inequality, which is what the South Africans are currently experiencing. Yes, you have to struggle to change those dynamics. The Palestinians, out of all of the people in that region of the world, have the most PhDs. They have educated themselves. They have the most civil engineers. Understand that, because if you destroy the infrastructure, they have to be rebuilt and they dedicate themselves into becoming engineers. Doctors, which is obviously paramount in

Adesoji Iginla (27:55.118)
to have to re -do it.

Adesoji Iginla (28:03.022)
very pivotal for their survival.

Azuwuike (28:03.93)
what they need for their survival and so therefore their literature which we've seen the idea of destroying all of their university, destroying their cultural heritage, their memory. They don't want them to have the ability to remember as we have been educated and learning from the African Karma framework our ways of knowing, our ways of remembering, cultural meaning making. If you destroy people's ability to exist what do you think they will be left to do?

Adesoji Iginla (28:14.83)
Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.

Azuwuike (28:33.85)
And as William... the abolitionist... I've forgotten his name now, on the tip of my tongue I remember him. Frederick Douglass was an abolitionist and the William Lloyd Garrison, who was the editor of the Enquirer, was it the Liberator newspaper. He said at the time of the maternal rebellion, what could you think they would do if you so dehumanized the people?

Adesoji Iginla (28:43.15)
Frederick Douglas or...

Yeah.

Azuwuike (29:03.802)
referring to Natunah, if you so dehumanize the person and the people and we told you don't do that, what avenue did you leave open for them? Because discussion was not on the table. In slavery it was worse, there was no conversation. At least in Israel there could have been some discussion. We had the Norway treaties, the Norway accords that took place with Yasser Arafat.

with Bill Clinton and Yitzhak Rabin. Yitzhak Rabin, as we know, was then assassinated. So there have been attempts to destabilise and to derail any form of a two -state solution for the longest time, including those engaged in the current conflict now, and headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, who was pivotal in destabilising the two -state solution then and now. You can see...

Adesoji Iginla (29:38.382)
Yep, yep, yep.

Azuwuike (29:58.778)
The fruits of what he's been planting for a very long time is the complete displacement of everybody from Gaza. And then to build a pipeline of their own to siphon off the Leviathan, which is the major cache of oil that has been spotted from satellite off the coast of Gaza. This is the real reason why they're doing what they do. It's not because of religious hatred, it's not because of racism.

Adesoji Iginla (30:03.854)
Correct.

Azuwuike (30:26.906)
It's purely and simply set their colonialism using the tools of racism, using religious xenophobia, using all of these ways of demonizing their people and they use biblical scripture to justify what they're doing and they've been doing this so quietly it now suddenly came as a shock to everybody when the Palestinians or Hamas if you will did what they did in October, December.

Adesoji Iginla (30:53.006)
I mean, for me, it's the lawlessness. And yeah, okay, so impunity. And obviously, if you live in a quote unquote, a rules -based world, certain laws are supposed to apply. Now, which gives us a very important segue in the sense that recently was revealed.

Azuwuike (30:57.466)
Yes. It's the impunity. It's the impunity.

Azuwuike (31:13.658)
Yeah, they don't apply.

Azuwuike (31:22.234)
Mm -hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (31:22.542)
that the Israelis were, how can I say it? Better still. It was like watching a Godfather movie when two...

Adesoji Iginla (31:40.206)
shady characters turns up at the house of the chief prosecutor and says, if you're nice to us, we'll be nice to you. We'll take care of you. Yes. Yes.

Azuwuike (31:49.21)
This is the ICC, right? This is the former ICC lead prosecutor. Let's see that.

Adesoji Iginla (31:55.694)
Yeah, Fatou Basouda of Gambian origin. And two things jump out of me there. It's the, it's the, it's the goal to even do it.

Azuwuike (31:59.834)
Yes.

Azuwuike (32:13.466)
Yeah but why not? Yeah but why not? You see, this is the problem. Why not? Because they've not been curtailed in their behaviour. Why not? And then we'll have to pull on those individual threads and say, what have they been doing before they did that? Around the world or in other places that they went and spoke with the former Congolese president to

Adesoji Iginla (32:13.55)
she goes...

Adesoji Iginla (32:21.358)
Hmm. Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (32:27.79)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (32:33.134)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (32:41.454)
President.

Azuwuike (32:43.13)
to gain assistance in this important issue for Israel. Well what is the important issue? They don't want to be brought or held accountable for what they know is clearly not right. They already know this which is why they've used these devious tactics to then put coercion, pressure, force on the top prosecutor as you can see here Mr Yossi Cohen, covert.

Adesoji Iginla (32:49.998)
Hmm.

Azuwuike (33:11.002)
contracts with the ICC's then prosecutor Fatou took place in the years leading up to her decision to open formal investigations into alleged war crimes. They were just allegations. And even the mere notion of that happening meant that the machinery kept into place to say we can't allow any claim that what we're doing has any legality or illegality about it. What we're doing, we must be allowed to do it.

Adesoji Iginla (33:21.646)
Exactly. Exactly.

Azuwuike (33:39.866)
This is what they want. They want to be allowed to do it. And this is the purpose of the war crimes statute after the Second World War was formed because of what happened to Jewish people in Germany, that it was supposed to prevent this from ever happening again.

Adesoji Iginla (33:42.478)
Hmm. Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (34:01.038)
And the premise was never again, wasn't it? That was a promise to humanity, never again. And yet we're witnessing a replay by the victims of said crime, actually now the perpetrators. Now, which, what is further disturbing about it is the fact that, yes, the media is carrying it, but the West has not condemned

Azuwuike (34:04.186)
Never again for anybody. Exactly.

Azuwuike (34:11.322)
Yes.

Azuwuike (34:17.626)
perpetrators.

Azuwuike (34:31.93)
No, they cannot.

Adesoji Iginla (34:34.222)
Why not?

Azuwuike (34:36.346)
because that leaves them open to culpability, which the Speaker of the House of Congress has said, we must punish Kareem Khan, the current prosecutor. It's astounding. The United States of America, who were instrumental in the formation of the United Nations and the rules that govern how states should behave.

Adesoji Iginla (34:44.878)
Mm -hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (35:02.542)
let me stop you there. You said they were pivotal to the forming of the United Nations, but they didn't form it so that you can talk back.

Azuwuike (35:05.05)
Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (35:13.678)
I mean, I don't understand why people go around, you know, pontificating. It's not for you to talk back. It's for you to be spoken to, to be told what to do, how to do it, when to do it. Not raising your hand, by the way, I put it to you, I beg your pardon. No, that is what Mike Johnson is doing. Mike Johnson is reminding you of your place. Exactly.

Azuwuike (35:25.562)
I win.

Azuwuike (35:32.698)
We know why the body is here. We're in charge. We're in charge. We are in charge. This is what Kareem Khan said in an interview with CNN's Christine Adam. Adam said, I've been told by senior officials that the purpose of the ICC is to arrest African leaders. That's what it's for.

Adesoji Iginla (35:47.822)
I'm on board, yeah.

Ha ha ha!

Adesoji Iginla (35:56.878)
Simple. Go do your job. Yeah.

Azuwuike (36:00.986)
You're not supposed to arrest people like us, don't you?

Adesoji Iginla (36:02.894)
Now? Don't you have any other African leaders you can go after? You know, you run out of a list? You know, and again, the notion that they will be held accountable is to them is abhorrent. It doesn't make sense. It's how dare you.

Azuwuike (36:09.882)
directly.

Azuwuike (36:23.514)
is abroad.

Azuwuike (36:27.866)
Why can't we do what we're doing? Don't you see what these, these things, they don't even refer to them as people. Things, animals, can't you see what they're doing? They're just, they're not even human beings. They deserve to be wiped from the planet. This is how it's...

Adesoji Iginla (36:33.966)
Yeah, these things, yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (36:42.286)
Imagine they're resisting. They're resisting our inalienable right to control them.

Azuwuike (36:52.122)
Essentially, yes.

Adesoji Iginla (36:53.87)
What is the world coming to? You're not supposed to resist.

Azuwuike (36:57.482)
This is the proverbial foot or knee on the neck of people and as we know from our brothers and sisters in Haiti, we always must look at them 1791 to 1804, the Haitian Revolution. With the French having their foot on the neck of the Haitians, you cannot enter into any discussion about please remove your foot from my neck. No, the Haitians chopped off the foot.

Adesoji Iginla (37:04.75)
Yeah!

Adesoji Iginla (37:13.678)
Hmm.

Azuwuike (37:26.682)
and then they can have some discussion because the French simply could not stand. So this is the problem that the Palestinians are having to deal with and face because asking them to remove the foot from their neck historically has never happened. Dr. Gerald Horner's written copious amounts of terrible stories of complete groups of ethnic and indigenous people being exterminated in Texas alone.

Adesoji Iginla (37:53.294)
I mean, the good doctor, Dr. Greg Carr of Africana Studies in Howard University often says, you're going to break it. And I think they are going to break it.

Azuwuike (38:06.234)
Yes.

They are going to break the system in which they've created. They don't want anybody else to have any control over their own indignity. This is what it is. They don't want it. It's astounding.

Adesoji Iginla (38:20.302)
Because the moment you break it, what else is there?

Aniki.

Azuwuike (38:27.77)
Anarchy, literally anarchy. And we've seen in the federal government in the United States of America, in the different states, especially in Texas, like we say here in the UK, if the United States of America sneezes, Europe catches a cold. That same premise we applied to the United States of America. If Texas sneezes, the United States of America will catch a cold. Texas has been succeeded from Mexico in 1836 and only joined the union.

Adesoji Iginla (38:34.958)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (38:54.414)
Hmm.

Azuwuike (38:56.602)
under the US after four years of fighting in between 1841 and 1845. The current governor, Brian Kemp, is making overtures to secede him from the United States of America.

Adesoji Iginla (39:08.206)
Well, good luck to him. Consciously, they don't produce anything other than oil. Okay.

Azuwuike (39:14.234)
But therein lies the problem. It is the oil why the United States of America isn't died the Middle East because of the oil. This is a problem.

Adesoji Iginla (39:21.742)
Well, they might very well do what they do to the Middle East and do to Texas.

Azuwuike (39:29.21)
do that.

Adesoji Iginla (39:29.774)
And speaking of doing things to Texas or doing things to people, President Biden in the course of the week had rolled out the red carpet for...

Azuwuike (39:45.306)
Hmm.

Azuwuike (39:49.594)
One of the brothers from the continent. I do. President William Ruta. President William Ruta.

Adesoji Iginla (39:50.702)
What, what, no, no, you have to give me his proper introduction. One of the, what exactly, one of the best presidents on the African continent, president William Ruto, went over to the United States and was, giving, a state visit. It was accorded a state visits and.

Some would argue he was his reward for.

Adesoji Iginla (40:23.694)
for putting 1000 Kenyan policemen on the island of Haiti.

Azuwuike (40:34.17)
goes full circle. We go back to Haiti and why are Haiti in the trouble that they're in? Since they took their self -determination in 1804 in their declaration in their constitution, no more slavery. Is that a bad thing? Yes, that is a bad thing. No more slavery. In other words, no more free labor because the Africans were kidnapped by the French, by the Spanish, by the British.

Adesoji Iginla (40:38.158)
Exactly.

Adesoji Iginla (40:43.918)
Mm.

Azuwuike (41:04.058)
and brought to Hispaniola, then Santo Domingo, Santo Domingo, and then renamed as Haiti as they took their self -determination from themselves. It angered them. How dare you!

Adesoji Iginla (41:13.454)
Mm.

Azuwuike (41:19.546)
How dare you do that? Massive financial imperatives placed on them by the French and then the Americans and then occupation by America, then the kidnap of presidents and then the assassination of presidents. I haven't had a really good... and then earthquakes.

Adesoji Iginla (41:34.51)
Yeah, earthquakes. And then major funds gathered disappearing and what have you. Now, here for me is the angle that is a bit disturbing. The fact that now we're using a blackface.

Azuwuike (41:43.194)
Fifth.

Azuwuike (41:53.658)
Of course, of course. And this is why we have to be... Let's add some before I say what I say. The Supreme Court in Kenya ruled it as illegal and unconstitutional for the police force of Kenya to be deployed outside of Kenya, let alone on the continent of Africa, least of all to Haiti. Another continent, illegal, unconstitutional.

Adesoji Iginla (42:17.966)
Another continent.

Azuwuike (42:24.058)
But we can see, because of the forces that are so hell -bent on having hegemony everywhere, that's the empire of the United States of America, it's not just a country, it's an empire, they have not wanted to bloody their hands, and so they've been corralling all of the other people. They asked the Canadians, the Canadian said no. They asked Lula de Silva in Brazil, he said no. So, where does he go? He goes to...

Adesoji Iginla (42:35.95)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (42:45.038)
No.

Adesoji Iginla (42:51.534)
a former neocolonial state in Africa.

Azuwuike (42:55.674)
in Africa. Do, when you do this for us, your, our president is a son of yours, referring to Barack Obama.

Adesoji Iginla (43:02.894)
but yeah, I pulled a couple of strings.

Azuwuike (43:06.074)
So they pulled some strings and the Kenyans have said, yes, they will do this to the detriment of the violence in Haiti who have no say in any of these machinations, which is again problematic.

Adesoji Iginla (43:19.214)
and also to the detriment of the Kenyans who've had a say but has been over -reading.

Azuwuike (43:22.586)
Of course, I've been ignored. I've been ignored. The power of imperialism. The power of imperialism. As we know, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah said in one of his many novels, neocolonialism is the highest, last stage of imperialism. And then he, after writing his book, he was removed from office by Ku Geta.

Adesoji Iginla (43:29.518)
The power of imperialism.

Adesoji Iginla (43:41.23)
Of course.

Adesoji Iginla (43:49.998)
I mean, it's a reward for writing a book, isn't it? So...

Azuwuike (43:53.11)
Exactly, exactly.

Adesoji Iginla (43:57.582)
With Ruto now agreeing to push the boat out, the Kenyan boat out to the Americans who have now redirected the same boat to Haiti.

What that does is, that does now create a problem.

Africans. Can you see the divide and rule conquer now? So going forward now, Haitians will see Kenyans as quote unquote, part of the enemy. Because you're not able to say, is this guy is not this guy, is that one is not this one. You see the flag and that's what immediately, you know, that your mind goes to. But here's the thing.

Azuwuike (44:20.058)
Yes.

Yes.

Azuwuike (44:32.474)
Yes.

Azuwuike (44:47.002)
it will go to that.

Adesoji Iginla (44:50.03)
I often ask the question, why not put the questions to the Haitians? What do you want?

Azuwuike (45:00.058)
want to be left alone to sort out their own problems by themselves. When they need assistance, they will direct people to say, this is what we require, can you assist us? If there's a cost to be associated with that assistance, we will pay. And then you can have terms of agreement that will allow that assistance to be rendered. Normally countries can give aid, there's aid development budgets which most major countries have.

Adesoji Iginla (45:03.854)
And no, we can't do that.

Adesoji Iginla (45:11.278)
Mm. Mm.

Azuwuike (45:28.922)
to distribute in order to assist countries that have suffered from earthquakes, natural disasters and so forth. We've seen how the Haitians who fled from the earthquake in 2010 ended up in the Mexico border crossing with the Rio Grande in Texas and being chased by horseback -ridden police men from the United States of America. This was a terrible sight to witness. Haitians who traveled all that way.

given their history to then be chased by men on horseback.

To even get from Haiti to Mexico, you have to see the map, to see the distance that some families have had to travel in order to just reach safety and security, have a chance for a decent life, a decent living, given the fact that your country's been destabilized, political assassinations, corruption is rampant, drug trafficking through the island, everything is there, which would mean most people cannot even safely.

and the abuse of the local population, the women, is just shocking to say the least. And they really do need to be given some time to breathe, some time to rest, some time to build themselves up so that they can stand on their own two feet as they've done before. And they will again, I'm sure of that. They will again.

Adesoji Iginla (46:53.634)
And also, what is also troubling is...

There is no way to control these guys when they get over there because for one, it's.

Azuwuike (47:07.034)
No.

Adesoji Iginla (47:11.278)
It's a waste of time and you know, it's a waste of time, it's a waste of resources. And unfortunately, unfortunately, Haitians are again going to bear the brunt of all of that, yes.

Azuwuike (47:28.282)
all of that yes as we said the the average salary of some Haitians is three dollars per day a lot of the weapons which are being flooded into Haiti cost one thousand eight hundred dollars they can't afford to buy them so they're being supplied with arms from various outside actors who are interfering with their self -governments so it becomes very very difficult for them to even organize themselves

Adesoji Iginla (47:37.358)
Hmm.

Azuwuike (47:57.786)
without these factional, they call them gang orphans. These are just ex -military, ex -police, you know, who are trying to stave off encroachment from one territory or another and to be able to do the things that I've seen some wonderful imagery, I've seen some wonderful reports. Haitians are actually building dams, water facilities. This is not being covered in mainstream media at all. I'm following many Haitian people on social media.

I see the images they're building dams, they're building irrigation systems so that they can farm, they can plant their own crops. At the basis of all of this they need food security. Once they have their food security then they can grow their food, they can feed themselves and from that then they can do all the other things which every other country needs to do, especially the brothers in South Africa. Food security is probably the basis of why there's a lot of these destabilization events happening across the world at the moment, it's the insecurity of food.

Adesoji Iginla (48:55.31)
Mm. Mm. Mm.

Azuwuike (48:57.242)
And that's because of changing climate, weather patterns have shifted because of rising temperatures. This is causing people to move from their farmlands, which their crops may have failed, and they go into heavily populated areas. And then you're going to have these tensions because there's not enough facilities to service an already over densely populated community. So we see the same thing in Haiti, but there are some wonderful things happening there for sure. So I have great faith they'll be able to overcome the hardships.

Adesoji Iginla (49:08.494)
Thank you.

Adesoji Iginla (49:26.606)
Hopefully, hopefully, I mean hopefully. Yeah. And speaking of overcoming, apparently it's considered common knowledge now that the United Arab Emirates is the one who has been backing the troubles in Sudan.

Azuwuike (49:27.866)
Hopefully.

Adesoji Iginla (49:55.022)
And so the story reads, it's an open secret. The UAE is fueling Sudan's war and there will be no peace until we'll call it out. The Emirates is arming and supporting one side in the conflict, but the UK and the US officials have shied from confronting it. I wonder why. The rapid support forces, the RSF have been...

Well, apparently there's been 6 .8 million people internally displaced and 2 million fleeing the country. The importance of this fleeing will come to later. There are 24 .8 million, almost half the population is in dire need of humanitarian assistance. The United Arab Emirates is the foreign player most invested in the war. In fact, without its direct and all -round support, the RSF will not be able to wage war to the same extent.

Azuwuike (50:34.202)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (50:53.07)
Sudan is key to the UAE's strategy in Africa and the Middle East, aimed at achieving political and economic hegemony, while curbing democratic aspirations. Since 2015, it has sourced fighters from both factions to join its conflict in Yemen. It is the primary importer of Sudan's gold and has multi -billion dollar plans to develop ports along the border.

Azuwuike (51:12.474)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (51:20.686)
Sudan's Red Sea coast by supporting the RSF in Sudan. It has undermined the democratic transition that followed the 2019 ouster of Omar al -Bashir, Sudan's dictator for 30 years. Now, a host of things actually jump up in this highlighted skit. The first is

Azuwuike (51:40.346)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (51:46.286)
having fighters to go join, to go fight its conflict in Yemen. Can you imagine?

Azuwuike (51:57.082)
in Yemen.

Adesoji Iginla (51:57.87)
indian men which is across the sea yeah that a different continent by its own by the stretch of the you know by no stretch of the imagination and it's also a primary importer of sudan's gold so essentially

Azuwuike (52:01.978)
Yes.

Azuwuike (52:09.738)
Thanks for watching.

Adesoji Iginla (52:19.406)
The crisis.

Azuwuike (52:20.506)
crisis and no it is the links between all of the stories that we've spoken about so far this evening.

Adesoji Iginla (52:22.638)
and gone.

Azuwuike (52:35.322)
are, they're troubling. We have South Africa, who's touched on their two cases. We have the election. We have the ICJ case being brought by South Africa against Israel. We have another story I'm sure we're going to cover. The diamond exporter importer in Israel and outside countries interfering in the internal development of countries.

for their regional dominance, hegemony. And then these outside countries themselves are bound up in the conflict in Palestine. So UAE is also bound up in what's happening in the conflict in Gaza because of their unwillingness. I don't even know if that's the right word to use, unwillingness to lend aid to the Palestinians because many of those.

other countries around Gaza, around Palestine, around the EU. I have been seen not to be caring. But this is not true because many of the people that do care how their governments react and how their governments behave is because of outside pressure from the largest hegemon, which is the United States of America, which has the biggest military muscle, which has the biggest financial imperative. So it literally drags everything.

Adesoji Iginla (53:44.846)
Do care, yeah?

Azuwuike (54:03.546)
in a direction which is antithetical to how the people want these things to be resolved. Ordinary people just want to be able to feed themselves, clothe their children, educate them, have decent jobs. But because of the weird places in which they live, what is under their feet? The copper, the gold, the diamonds, the uranium, the plutonium, the platinum, the cobalt, the coltan.

Adesoji Iginla (54:25.038)
Hmm. Hmm.

Azuwuike (54:33.274)
Therefore, the way that the greedy capitalists, I mean, it's an oxy -bot to say greedy capitalists. In the same sentence. So we can see that these outside forces have only one modus operandi. We must have those resources at any cost. At any cost.

Adesoji Iginla (54:39.438)
Greedy capitalist. In the same phrase, in the same sentence. Come on, come on, come on.

Adesoji Iginla (55:01.102)
human and material.

Azuwuike (55:02.682)
Irrelevant of human or material cost. Irrelevant. Natural, it doesn't matter. We must have those resources. You and I are speaking on thousands of pounds equipment. We know that the components in the batteries that we're using, unfortunately, come from our brothers, the children. They're picking up by their fingertips the cobalt in the batteries to stop them from overheating.

And this is the landscape in which we all participate, we all live in this system, this global system. So to extricate ourselves out of this, to say, this is not right, what can we do? Whilst we're trying to raise awareness for other people who may not know, we're still participants, even though we don't want to be. Into the modern slavery that we're seeing, we have to use these words and use them, you know, carefully and cautiously.

Adesoji Iginla (56:00.43)
Carefully, yeah, yeah.

Azuwuike (56:02.074)
Because modern day slavery is not some magical and mystical thing happening far away. We can just, you know, contact one of our brothers. Do you know anybody from Congo? Yes, my sister. Tell us what's happening. Do you know anybody from Haiti? Yes, tell us what's happening. What about Sudan? my uncle is there. We know people who can tell us what's happening. So these things are not far away from us. We can reach out and ask our brothers and sisters to help us understand. And so...

We have to be conscious of all of the protests in Palestine, but also as we're talking about Sudan and the sheer number of people displaced, not even getting anywhere like the same sort of coverage that the Palestinians are having, but for different reasons. And we understand why. And then of course we have Congo going through the same problem.

Adesoji Iginla (56:51.79)
Well, speaking of Congo, which is where we're going next, is...

Apparently the White House is considering easing sanctions.

Adesoji Iginla (57:09.838)
Only diamond, you know.

Azuwuike (57:12.41)
I'm gonna do that.

Adesoji Iginla (57:13.518)
on a diamond deal. So in the New York Times, it reads, seeking access to Congo's metals, White House aims to ease sanctions, a deal to allow Israeli billionaire Dan Gatler to cash out his mining positions in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Has enraged human rights activists and some government officials. Three years after Biden's administration tightened sanctions on billionaire

Israeli mining executive for corrupt business practices in the Democratic Republic of Congo, they have reversed themselves and are offering the executive a deal they hope will bolster the supply of metal vital to electric vehicles. The plan will allow the executive Dan Gettler to sell off his remaining stake in three giant copper and cobalt mining operations in Congo. There is one part here.

Okay, so that has been agreed, right? But certain state and treasury department officials strongly oppose the effort saying Mr. Gatler should not be allowed to profit from his deal making, which the Biden administration earlier argued had cheated the citizens of Congo out of more than $1 billion in mining revenue.

Azuwuike (58:41.658)
It must be more than that. It must be more than that.

Adesoji Iginla (58:43.726)
Then let me read this last part. Maybe that would shed more light as to what it is we're looking at. The son of one of Israel's biggest diamond dealers, Mr. Gedla, started to invest in Congo nearly three decades ago. He eventually became one of the biggest holders of mining rights in the Central African nation and the target of accusations that he has enriched himself at the expense of a population that is amongst the world's poorest.

Adesoji Iginla (59:16.686)
What do you say?

Azuwuike (59:19.642)
Well, as I said a second ago, you and I are both using devices which have got components which have come directly from Congo. But to castigate a small person, myself, yourself, as the main perpetrators of this would be disingenuous and intellectually lazy. How does he have mining rights in those mines? One person, how? Of course.

Adesoji Iginla (59:23.79)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (59:28.302)
Mm -hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (59:32.942)
Mm.

Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (59:38.926)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (59:44.75)
Good question.

Azuwuike (59:48.378)
There'll be government officials in Congo that sign some paper somewhere to say that he has access and he has the rights. But they can't sign away the resources of the country. Remember, Professor Peter Russell, Peter H. Russell, who teaches political science in the University of Toronto in Canada, his book on sovereignty called Sovereignty, the biography of a claim. Peter Russell was told.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:15.214)
Mm -hmm.

Azuwuike (01:00:17.466)
to attend a meeting by tribal elders of the Dene nation and they asked him two questions. What is sovereignty? And the second question, how did the Queen get it over us? The Queen they were referring to as the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth II. How did they get sovereignty? How did she get sovereignty over people that she'd never met in Canada? They were given pieces of paper in front of them by British people.

told Sonny.

This transferred their heritage to England. This is not lawful. This is, some might argue, illegal. You can't go to a people and tell them to give their land rights away, which is what we have here in Congo. The Congolese government can't give their rights away. It's like saying the water that runs through the Congo River, we can give that to outside people. You can't give the river away. It's foolish. It's your...

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:53.742)
Over to you.

Azuwuike (01:01:20.474)
using that as a means to produce hydroelectricity. You can't suddenly say we can give the electricity to... No, that electricity will be used, it will be stored, then we use the power infrastructure, development, lighting and all sorts of things. You can't give that away. Which is what the indigenous people in North America said to those settlers that first arrived, we can share the land. But the settlers said, no, we want all of the land. And the settlers said, you can't own this.

Adesoji Iginla (01:01:47.182)
Now, if you look at, yeah, so if you're looking at Mr. Gatler's position here in terms of, quote unquote, owning sovereignty over the Congo, this harks back to the days of Leopold, when Leopold walked the people, over 10 million of them, to death in the pursuit of rubber using the forced republic.

Azuwuike (01:01:57.594)
Yes. Yes.

Azuwuike (01:02:03.546)
of Leopold.

Azuwuike (01:02:13.274)
of rubber.

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:16.302)
the military arm of the state at the time to enforce the Robac collection. The position was so egregious that the Belgian parliament had to step in in 1891. And again, we're coming back to a similar type situation that an outsider is having to step in.

Azuwuike (01:02:23.514)
connection.

Azuwuike (01:02:40.026)
Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:44.43)
but not because of the people, but because of interests, their interests, their particular interests. And you can begin to make this stuff up. So.

Azuwuike (01:02:48.186)
No.

Adesoji Iginla (01:03:02.446)
How does Kongu break out of this?

Azuwuike (01:03:07.226)
They will need... Again, it's like asking what do the Haitians do. It's like asking what the Sudanese do. It's like asking what do the Palestinians do. It's like asking what do the South Africans do.

Adesoji Iginla (01:03:15.95)
Mm.

Azuwuike (01:03:21.85)
is a combination of all of the factors of people protesting, people raising awareness, people educating other people who may not know to say, did you know that this thing is happening? Some people don't know, which is okay. And then there has to come a level of self -awareness and then at least some people will put pressure on elected officials to say this thing must be spoken about at the highest level because

Outside pressure must be brought to bear where possible to aid in the suffering and the alleviation of that suffering. Because we all know people are suffering, not least of all children. But we know that some people don't care. And we've seen this, they don't care. 30 ,000, 35 ,000 Palestinians have lost their lives. A large proportion of them are children. And still the bombs keep forming.

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:08.078)
Yes. Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:14.702)
Hmm.

Azuwuike (01:04:20.442)
So we know that they don't care. So asking the shark not to bite you or asking the perpetrator of crime against you not to do the crime against you, as Masnoum Miller, the state that Harbin spoke to me, said that if Palestinians have a problem, they should go to the Israeli government. This is preposterous.

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:39.15)
You

So you heard that as well.

Azuwuike (01:04:44.506)
I heard that. How do you tell the Palestinians if you have a case to bring and you have, who has jurisdiction? You have to go to the people who are abusing you. This is nonsensical. It's like asking a woman, a victim of rape, to go and ask the judge to judge who was the person who raped her. It's just nonsense.

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:51.982)
Yeah, go back to the... I mean...

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:02.318)
No, I mean that was what the BBC guy asked him. Are you serious? Are you seriously asking me that question that way? It's like, okay, you know

Azuwuike (01:05:14.618)
This is the purpose of the ICC, the United Nations, because you need an extra governmental organisation which is supposed to intercede for countries in matters like this. So people have somewhere to go to say, this thing is happening for us, can we get some help?

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:24.078)
Mm -hmm. Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:31.47)
Hmm. Hmm.

Azuwuike (01:05:32.57)
And as you said at the beginning of this, the international rules based on that is not... You do what you're told and you decide if we're going to stop doing what we're doing. And this is the problem that we're faced with.

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:36.874)
You

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:43.406)
Facts, facts.

Speaking of rules, which lends itself very nicely into our last story, is apparently the EU has been protecting the garden.

Azuwuike (01:05:55.834)
Hmm.

Azuwuike (01:06:05.434)
From Weeds. Yosset Barrel.

Adesoji Iginla (01:06:06.542)
We did not hear that phrase. Yosa Borrell, when he said the problem with these Africans is all of you want to come into the garden, you should stay.

Azuwuike (01:06:21.178)
In the jungle.

Adesoji Iginla (01:06:25.358)
my God. So, I mean, on a more serious note, it appears the EU has been incentivizing countries in the north, namely Mauritania, Tunisia, and more recently Egypt, Morocco as well. The odd one out being Algeria. I wonder why.

Azuwuike (01:06:30.65)
Yeah.

Azuwuike (01:06:40.858)
for Africa.

Adesoji Iginla (01:06:55.502)
And any so -called migrant that has been unfortunate to pass through the aforementioned countries has been dumped at the doorstep of the Algerians. And so the Algerians have been having to pick up the slack in terms of what's doing their responsibility. But here's the thing. In terms of the story itself,

The European sides are denying, but yet you see them from time to time as this report shows that the actions are actually being financed. And

Azuwuike (01:07:43.29)
Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (01:07:47.214)
with brand new buses. There is Algeria. Follow the light. The Tunisia official backed at the black immigrant. If you're seen here, you will be shot. Francois, a 38 -year -old Cameroonian, obeyed, jumping off the bed of a pickup truck near the desolate Algeria frontier a day earlier. The rickety boat attempted to carry him and other hopefuls, sub -Saharan Africans to Europe.

including his wife and six -year -old stepson, had been interdicted by the Tunisian Coast Guard in the cobalt blue waters off the coast. Still wet and cold, the group of 30 migrants, including two pregnant women, now walked towards their punishment, the desert. Imagine. Imagine.

Azuwuike (01:08:36.794)
Look at that. Can you imagine?

Adesoji Iginla (01:08:41.582)
Imagine.

pregnant.

Azuwuike (01:08:44.89)
People have been so disillusioned in the place where they were born, in the country that they were born in, that they saw no hope other than to flee and to then cross a water, the Mediterranean, to seek refuge and then to be stopped and then to face another ocean called the desert.

Adesoji Iginla (01:09:05.87)
Mmm.

to desert.

Azuwuike (01:09:12.474)
is heartbreaking because the destabilization of people, and we can see as we mentioned Sudan, 20 million people, 60 million people are displaced internally. Some of them will take flight out of the continent entirely.

Adesoji Iginla (01:09:34.766)
I mean, it's the notion that you would dump pregnant women in the deserts in the midst of no sustenance.

Azuwuike (01:09:45.018)
Yeah, yeah, it's a cease

Adesoji Iginla (01:09:49.294)
could one count them lucky in comparison to the kids that were shot by the Moroccan guards last year or was it, yeah, last year, early last year.

Azuwuike (01:10:02.234)
Our time on this planet is short. It's even to contemplate which one is worth drowning in an ocean or dying in a desert. Or dying of thirst. You could be unseen and die of thirst. It's just biggest belief.

Adesoji Iginla (01:10:05.23)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:10:12.302)
or dino first?

Adesoji Iginla (01:10:19.534)
Hmm. But I mean, being made to die. Because essentially that's a death sentence.

Azuwuike (01:10:28.634)
Yeah, it's a death sentence. Because at least if you're... I mean we know many boats have capsized on their way from France to the UK in the English Channel. 10, 20, 30, hundreds have perished. But many survive. So the risk of survival of that is what continues to drive them. In the desert, the chance of survival is zero. The chance of survival is zero.

Adesoji Iginla (01:10:38.062)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

Adesoji Iginla (01:10:53.07)
Hmm. Hmm.

Azuwuike (01:10:57.178)
It's miraculous if anybody comes to your aid and does it.

Adesoji Iginla (01:10:57.294)
So.

Adesoji Iginla (01:11:01.006)
I mean, for me, the essence of doing what it is we do here is to point out the hypocrisy in the Western media, reframe the narrative so that my people can understand that sometimes the stories are...

Azuwuike (01:11:07.674)
Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (01:11:19.438)
Sometimes hidden, sometimes they're in plain sight, but the language used is not for you. It's telling you effective, it's saying stuff about you, but not for you. It's for the audience. Like, I mean, you read that alone. It makes you weep to pregnant women. And why is one surprised if Gaza has, you know, and these are,

Azuwuike (01:11:28.282)
No.

Adesoji Iginla (01:11:49.678)
The shocking thing is you've got all of these proponents of women rights, children rights, human rights, and yet all you hear is crickets. Crickets.

Azuwuike (01:12:04.57)
Because the missing word from all of those phrases is white human rights. White children's human rights. Unfortunately. Unfortunately.

Adesoji Iginla (01:12:12.654)
I mean, that's exactly, exactly. Because you have to make someone that looks like them in a precarious situation for them to be moved.

Azuwuike (01:12:27.162)
for them to be moved.

Adesoji Iginla (01:12:31.662)
I guess.

Azuwuike (01:12:31.738)
And we saw that at the beginning of the extended conflict with new Russia and Ukraine, when the Ukrainians were leaving and being invited to many countries, Poland took the largest share of people. The British government invited many of them. And people asked the same. Of course. And people asked the simple question, if you can do that for the Ukrainians, why not for anybody else?

Adesoji Iginla (01:12:36.686)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:12:46.638)
which caused many divorces.

Adesoji Iginla (01:13:00.526)
Did somebody not say, what did somebody say out loud?

Azuwuike (01:13:02.97)
blonde haired blue eyes.

Blonde hair, blue eyes, it's not supposed to happen to people who look like us!

Adesoji Iginla (01:13:09.486)
There we go. There we go. We go back to the the the RCJ.

when they were said, this is not for us, it's for Africans.

Azuwuike (01:13:26.97)
for Africans. Just the ICC, not the ICJ, the ICC, yes, Karim Khan, yes. And he was told deliberately and no doubt he's been receiving, you know, telephone calls.

Adesoji Iginla (01:13:29.966)
ICC, sorry. Yeah, the ICC. Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (01:13:40.526)
Friendly ones, I hope.

Azuwuike (01:13:43.514)
friendly ones, you know, not from delivery no doubt, but he may get a delivery, not that he wants one. That's...

Adesoji Iginla (01:13:49.134)
Hahaha

Azuwuike (01:13:54.682)
But his course of action should be considered and contemplated. I think there will be some nice language, you know, so that he can have some understanding. But he knows that his position is precarious because of the types of things that he's attempting to do, which is to uphold international law. And if there's no law, as you said, it will just be anarchy.

Adesoji Iginla (01:14:00.366)
I mean, mm, mm, mm, mm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:14:13.198)
Hmm.

True, true. And speaking of rules and laws and talking, it's my pleasure and honor that you're able to answer the call. And thank you very much. I mean, I've kept you way past your bedtime, you know.

Azuwuike (01:14:33.594)
No problem, brother.

Azuwuike (01:14:39.29)
That's okay. We're both in the UK. I'm gonna jump on another call now with Dr. Horne who's got a live stream right now.

Adesoji Iginla (01:14:48.142)
okay, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you have to keep the revolutionaries, they're all going. But any last words?

Azuwuike (01:14:57.882)
And we continue to take the breast of all of these stories on a daily basis. We continue to pick apart the language that is being misused by journalists who refuse to want to be able to, for monetary reasons, because they fear for their own safety, to be able to bring true stories in a truthful and objective manner, because it's a difficult task. And we know the pressure that we do.

Adesoji Iginla (01:15:01.87)
Mm. Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:15:24.142)
Mm. Mm.

Azuwuike (01:15:27.002)
brought to bear on ordinary people is immense. So we don't make light of the positions that they're in and we don't blame them. We blame the institutions, not the people, because some people don't want to do the thing that they've been told to do. So we keep watching all of these stories. We stand in solidarity even with our people who didn't get a chance to speak on. New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, that have a recent landslide that greatly affected thousands of people.

Adesoji Iginla (01:15:38.222)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:15:49.23)
Yep, yep, yep.

Azuwuike (01:15:55.866)
And so we continue to lift up the people who are looking for self -determination around the world and we stand in solidarity with all of them, especially about those who are struggling, greatly distressed in Palestine at the moment and Haiti specifically.

Adesoji Iginla (01:16:10.702)
Yeah. And yes, thank you, Eagle of God, Azubique Majubeya. It's, again, it's a pleasure and thank you very much for taking the call as usual. My name is Adesuji Ginla and Adesuji Speaks will continue next week. And until then, as we see, Aluta Continua, Victri Aseta. Good day, everyone. Good day.

Azuwuike (01:16:25.306)
Nah, always. No problem, no problem.

Azuwuike (01:16:38.938)
to you.