Aregbesola urges FG to lift embargo on Cuba

As the United States renews its 54-year-old sanction and blockade on Cuba, Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has denounced the action, describing it as a reflection of America’s moral and intellectual bankruptcy.
Aregbesola, who joined 36 diplomats in Abuja to call for an immediate and unconditional end to the embargo on Cuba, enjoined the rest of the world to lend their voices to the agitation for Cuba’s self-determination, saying that no nation should think it’s safe and free if US is not challenged in its bid to continue the strangulation of Cuba.
He admitted that although it is good that the Obama administration recently established diplomatic relationship with Cuba, adding that what is essential is ending the decades of embargo.
The governor, who commended the Nigeria Labour Congress for providing a platform for the interaction said the triumph of the Cuban revolution in 1959 opened a new chapter of epic struggles, sacrifices, heroism and agitation against oppressive nations, and rejoiced that the decades of blockade on Cuba could not prevent it from fulfilling its international obligations.
“Despite relentless imperialist hostility that aimed to depress Cuba socially, economically and politically, resilient Cuba accomplished so much in medicine, tourism, foreign aid in education to developing nations, military aid to Mozambique, Angola and Ethiopia among others as well as its consistent contributions to the United Nations,” he said.
While he recalled that Cuban doctors sacrificed their lives in the quest to stop the spread of the highly contagious Ebola virus, the governor noted that Nigeria has immensely benefited from Cuba’s medical aid, stating that Yoruba tribe constitutes 10 percent of the native population of Cuba.
Aregbesola further said, “When I went to Cuba, I met Ijesha people who are not visitors to Cuba, but who by descent, are natives of Cuba. They still call themselves Ijesha people because they recognise their ancestral link with the Yoruba.”