Embracing national peace

When people define politics as the “art of the possible”, they are being hopeful. It might be better to describe politics as the art of the near-impossible. You may wish to agree or disagree with this thesis. One thing to note, however, is that it is through politics that groups, communities, nations, or citizens of a state try among themselves to decide what to do, how things should be done, how social goods should be apportioned, how relations of authority and power should be managed.

In politics, people decide who is to have power, for what purposes, for how long and to what extent. This is because there are differing interests and opinions in any group. When selfish interest is the motive behind any political agenda, there could be a display of violence. The violence may provoke hatred orchestrated by those who are not in alignment with self-centredness of others. This may have a spill-over effect on the larger society that one wonders whether the world can be peaceful as democracies spring up globally.

Living in the world requires that we treat each other with gentleness and kindness. In order to live in harmony with others, Nigerians have to be gentle. You may think it is impossible to be a gentle citizen but I solemnly declare that it is possible. Since we cannot live a life of isolation, all Nigerians reading this piece are advised to embrace peaceful coexistence with their neighbours. Irrespective of our beliefs, if we display an attitude of “an eye for an eye” or “a tooth for a tooth”, then there will be no peace.
In order to have peace, we must remove pomposity and pigheadedness. As long as individuals display these negative attributes, there will be no peace. These negative attributes are responsible for ballot box snatching, killing of political opponents, incessant kidnappings, human and drug trafficking, amongst other societal vices.

We must do away with self-interest and seek the interest of others. Nigerians must tolerate dissent. That I have a dissenting view on any national issue does not warrant you to display hatred towards me and my family. We must respect dissent and have regard for all religious beliefs. We must display our respect for all religious believers and all non-believers. This is the basis for secularism. We must be understanding, forgiving and yielding. What then is national peace? National peace is the freedom, goodwill and happiness among and within all ethnic groupings and/or peoples in a nation irrespective of their religious beliefs.

Going back in time, world civilization has witnessed countless instances of warfare, battles and conflicts which have altered the destiny of man and shaped the future of nations. Many philosophers and researchers, however, believe that contemporary conflicts are far more complex as their solutions. Regrettably, the last century was filled with too much violence. These include the First World War, followed by the Second World War, the Korean War, the Indo-Pakistani War, the Israeli War, the Nigeria-Biafra War, et cetera.

This violence still continues across the globe till date. From Africa to the Middle East, it is the story of misery. From Middle East to Asia and from Europe to the USA, people are killed on a daily basis. If it is not migration and sinking of ships in the Mediterranean Sea, it is bombing of civilians and shooting of innocent people in Syria. At the international arena, ISIS is reported to have killed more than 170,000 people, mostly Christians and Shiites. The act of terrorism is now perpetrated on land, air and sea across the globe. At the national level, Boko Haram is reported to have killed 700,000 and displaced 2.2 million in the North East. After the war on terror, can anyone tell the world how much peace we have left? Peace is not likely to come out of a clash of arms and ideologies but out of justice, equity and fairness displayed by leadership in all democracies across the globe.

We also witnessed occasions where civilian economic needs mount greater pressure on governments creating economic warfare that disturbs peaceful living. Why are salaries of workers not paid in many states in Nigeria after “bailout”? Why is it that pensioners are owed pension arrears for some months? Hardly do you find a day without aggrieved workers carrying placards with inscriptions such as “Governor, pay our pension arrears or resign”.

Today, the problem with our leaders is that many of them known to be Marxists by nature and character have suddenly become capitalist in their thinking. As far as socio-economic theory is concerned, most of these national leaders in their arrogance have lost focus on how to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor. Consequently, peace has become an illusion such that settlement of issues between governments and people is achieved through military involvement, cessation of arms and weapons, and dialogue on less violent civilian matters. As I write this piece, most governments have not used much of democratic means to maintain peace. What we normally hear is that “government cannot talk to terrorists”. It is only government that knows why this position is the best. However, instead of using diplomacy or “winning the hearts and minds” of people, most governments resort often to using military power to settle issues that disturb peace. In order to embrace peace, political leaders must play a role of making a nation rather than breaking it. Nations must engage in dialogue and negotiations to settle ethnic, religious and political problems.
When manoeuvrist approach to warfare and counterterrorism has not yielded desired results, what should we do in a depressed economy? Do we continue to acquire and use arms or change strategy? Applying diplomacy, economic measures, and the media, either singly or collectively as instruments of national power, may be considered to facilitate peace. Merry Christmas in advance to all peace loving Nigerians.