Femi Otubanjo is a research professor at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA). In this interview, he speaks on President Bola Tinubu’s call for an end to Israeli aggression in Gaza, his advocacy for a two-state solution to the Middle East crisis, among other issues, writes Well, I would say it’s a routine call because everybody has been calling for an end to Israeli aggression. It is gratifying that Nigeria has joined its voice on a global scale.
The destruction by Israel and the deprivations cannot be accepted and cannot continue. We hope that Israel will listen because the ball is in Israel’s court. Hamas also has to agree to some peace deal.
There’s been some frustration with Hamas about rejecting the peace deal up to the point that Qatar has decided to withdraw its participation in the peace deal and countries like the U.S. are calling for Palestinian representatives to be sent away from Doha since the whole purpose of their staying in Doha is to encourage them to make peace with Israel.
On the two-state solution that has been around for a very long time; the beginning of the Israeli crisis was the two-state solution, the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the 1937 period of the declaration. Of course, in 1947, the UN declaration of a two-state, a proposal to set up two states in Palestine, one for the Jews and one for the Arabs. Ironically, the Arabs were the ones who rejected it and consistently rejected the two-state solution.
But gradually, it beca.