VIOLENCE IN AFRICA AND THE NIGERIAN SITUATION.

VIOLENCE IN AFRICA AND THE NIGERIAN SITUATION. Avoidable bloody conflicts- and their likes are, in Africa, far from new, they are just as old as traditions are; but that does not mean these rustic trends cannot change for the better. The character of african conflicts, these days, is that they have never been this linked; they now have a common denominator. Nothing substantial links, say, the Nigerian Civil War with the Rwandan genocide, and with other Civil wars and conflicts that took place in Africa in the 60s, 70s, 80s and even the 90s. On the African continent, we are experiencing a Cold War between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which spilling over to Somalia, is causing acute suffering on both the most and less vulnerable (where Eritrea is supporting the jihadist group, al Shabaab, in its fight against the Ethiopian-backed government in Mogadishu); in Sudan and South Sudan, insurgencies have been fuelled in each other’s kitchen, with both parties laying claims to objects and issues which can be resolved without bloodshed if, and only if, the fears of vested interests are shelved; the Sudanese Janjaweed militias have fought in eastern Chad and in the Central African Republic claiming lives, that God alone can give, disrupting Peace efforts that have gulpped colossal material and human resources, from within and without; in Uganda, The Lord’s Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony has (so to speak) mesmerized the Museveni-led state efforts to protect life and property, and wreaks substantive havoc in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan; in Nigeria, the Boko Haram sect has seriously bloodied thousands of civilians and seem to have defied national Military might to the displeasure of anyone who is not insane and Satanic, while the Shekau-led group playfully suggests a negotiation with the Federal Government (a nonsensical shadowy incubi which ought not be even contemplated upon by any sensible government, no matter its size and wealth); in Congo, a Civil War wages and even disturbs Rwanda and Uganda on the boader-sides, claiming human life as if life has become of mundane and animalistic nature, impeading socio-economic activities in the process. The consequence in Nigeria is dire and nearest to my experience. It is broad-based and ranges from; soldiers fighting the inurgency mutinying against their commanders (on two occassions) a height of indiscipline that ought not be said to happen in a State not in anachy; political groups wineing and dining with the Presidency, by default, failing to withhold their sympaties for insurgents who have made a country they call their own a valley of blood and chared bodies; children who should be safe within the walls of state-owened educational facilities have become endangered species as they are being abuducted in their hundreds and filtered through the porous sieve of State Security in spite of partial emergency rule imposed by the Federal Government; Small and Medium Scale businesses built, mostly without state assistance are shuting down (seemingly perpetually); markets, places of worship and work places are becoming abattoirs, not of ruminants as the culture is, but of human flesh; Governments (Federal and State) keep on contrdicting each other on security details and even hidding facts from each other; mornachs apparently playing the conspiracy of silence, when the disturbances lie in their very fiefdoms and are carried by their very subjects. While the military is splintered along ethnic lines leading to ethnic violence and a civil war and as the heat of conflict between senior political figures attains boiling point in South Sudan, a corrupt army, a weak state, and the looting of the natural wealth characterises the unresolved violence in Congo. While the al Shabaab group has helped fuel the illegal trade of Ivory and launched terrorist attacks in neighboring Kenya (one of which is the Nairob attack which killed over 60 people last year), the Boko Haram insurgency, in plainly liberal terms, is killing the political-economy of northern Nigeria, unleaching the reign of terror and chaos across the land, and making the Nigerian government appear weak. Whether the Boko Haram insurgency is the brainchild of northern Nigerian barons, it is left for another stream of analysis and conjecture to determine it. But one thing is solid, the air of conspiracy is undeniable. That a group of elders domiciled in the north once aggitated the Nigerian Government to, not only rollout an amnesty programme for these bigots of a terrorist and also release all detained members, but also to expend billions of tax payers' money as ransom to them; monies belonging to the thousands they have mimed and killed, makes their stance, on this issue, sacrilegious and repugnant, to start with. To also say that that there must be no foreign forces in Nigeria soil,on reasons of this avoidable disturbance, suggests much of the possible depth of their collaboration. And to further suggest that force should not be used in securing the Chibok girls is really tempting to sublimate the suspicion hanging in the air. As this new wave of violent conflicts ravages Africa, conventional and unconventional peace processes, we are made to understand, seem to have done little to quell them; or rather, have been defied by the problems they seek to resolve. But while it is common in some continents that the effective networking of traditional and hybrid peacemaking efforts have largely solve conflicts of this sort, it seems surprisingly different on African soil. It is sadding that the continent of Africa is experiencing the worst of times and is in an epoch of incredulity. Masures to curb the violence is grappling with the reality of the violence. Mediators, namely the United Nations, the African Union, the United States, seem to be more focused on the extrinsic factors and more exclusively on powerful military dictators. I wonder how their interests are threatend if they paticipate on the intrinsic factors as much as they do the extrinsic. If the national governments of these African countries have failed to show working in this show of carnage and seeming neglect, can't these external mediators get as serious as they were when the subject matter was Gaddaffi and Gbabgo? Or Lybia and Ivory Coast? I don't believe the ramifications of this security problem cannot be compartmentalized such that each of these bodies (along with the governments in question) plays a pivotal role in the spirit of synergy and love for mankind. I don't also believe that local and international collaborators on corridors of power are blameless in the face of the evidence that stares us in the face; either by what they have done or what they have refused/failed to do. Thoughts on the depth of conspiracy is not only disheartening, it is discouraging (to moan the least). But this gang-up against the unity of Nigeria will not work because God is with us. Professor Okey Ndibe asked pertinent questions few weeks ago, and I echo them "Why does the Nigerian state resort to lies after every act of carnage? Isn’t it bad enough that the country’s security agents are unable to protect innocents from the murderous designs of evil merchants of death? What end is served by this macabre falsehood? Is there a prize of nobility handed out to countries that consistently under-report the number of people who perish in acts of violence? Even if twenty-five of us died, instead of two hundred, does that earn Nigeria some great glory? Does that make Nigeria a rosier destination for tourists? Are foreign investors perpetually on the lookout, waiting to rush their cash into any country that, a, routinely falsifies the number of casualties in terrorist attacks and, b, would place the word 'only' before twenty-five or seventy-five corpses?". These questions prompts an involuntary reaction; national governments and the men who operate them have fallen short of their sole reponsibilities, which is the protection of life and property. They, through their actions and inactions, have contributed to the carnage, making it seem as though we are in the state of nature; where life is "nasty, brutish and short". In certain quarters, government agents even gallivant the media pointing out virtual conspirators without even substantiating their claims; in spite of the security intels available to them. Thus, apportioning blames that the violent life-claiming disturbances are politically motivated, as if the claim of their principal to the Nigerian Presidency isn't political too. Such claims are not only "statements of the obvious", but clearly superfluous. The nature of the political machanisations that brought in the government bears clear resemblance to the nature of politics that caused the menace and what is required to curb it; so let that be leveraged upon so that Nigerians can stop dieing in the way and manner they currently do. To be very fair to the Nigerian presidency, she is playing a game, and in the process, gambling away the lives of innocent men, women and children; thus, watching the blood of her citizens flow the gutters of their motherland, simply because one or two ethno-political interests are being protected. To what end? Is the resounding question. While, it is interesting to know that Boko Haram's abduction of the school girls has put Chibok in the world map just like President Jonathan's emergence on the scene of Nigerian national politics, put his coastal community of Otueke on the global map (the latter for good and the former is for ill, and leaving whatever this implies to deeper comparative analysis), it still remains that no single tribe, religion, political or social group, and even individuals should be allowed to usurp the collective destiny of Nigeria for its selfish whim, and only one institution can ensure it ( viz the Federal Government). It is important to re-echo that our strength and unity ought to be national, not regional; collective, not sectarian or personal; spiritual, not mundane; intellectual, not the other way round. Consequently, we must guard against, with utmost vigilance, any conspiracy and manipulation that tends to steal from us, the towering potentials of our human and natural capital, which is capable of empowering us to leading the world. Whatever does not, (or lacks the potentials to) contribute to our collective strength, such is viral, and would kill us in little or no time; hence we must avoid such, irrespective of our creeds and places of origin. While I pray for my country and continent, for her peace and prosperity, I have concluded that the insurgencies in today's Africa are pepetrated, primarily, along religious lines, unlike yesteryears, but spill over to ethnic and political domains; Nigeria being no exception in any way. Ojifo Raphael Undiandeye Student of Philosophy, University of Port Harcourt.