Pendulum: Why Nigeria Must Avoid Another Civil War By Dele Momodu

Fellow Nigerians, I have decided to write on this topic today
because of the dangerous giddiness I observe in many of our young
ones today, especially on social media. I have no doubt that many
of them love our country so passionately but are disappointed in
how messy things have been. Many have struggled to go to school
hoping to find something meaningful to do thereafter but no such
luck. Many have become frustrated and despondent and desperate in
the process.

The resultant effect naturally is deep seated resentment and
anger. But I read somewhere that “anger beclouds reasoning” more
often than not. Someone needs to plead with those who think war is
a tea party to perish the thought. It is not a game and to fit it
into language which our youths of today will probably understand,
it is not a video game. No matter how angry we were in our younger
days, (and I was a pioneer JAMBITE in 1978, some 41 odd years ago),
we tried hard to avoid bloodshed even when security forces fired at
us, as they still do till this day. And compared to war, such
confrontations are child’s play!

Even if war must come as the very last resort, there must be a
method to madness. War should never be fought for the sake of war.
One must ask the pertinent questions: what are we fighting for, the
objectives; who is leading the war and will they come out on the
battlefield with members of their own family or send others out as
Guinea pigs; what guarantees have we that even if we win, which
cannot ever be guaranteed, we can win with minimum collateral costs
and damages? That is why we have what is called a pyrrhic victory,
a victory so devastating and debilitating that it might as well
have been a defeat! And in a civil war, there is ultimately no
victor or vanquished because the protagonists all bear the scars
for a very long time. Those who participated in and survived the
Nigerian civil war will tell you of the emotional pain, anguish and
torture that they still suffer till today alongside the physical
injuries and wounds. We have examples of other wars fought across
the globe and we know their outcomes. Even where victory has been
proclaimed in some of them, we feel the aftershocks and aftermath
much later on and wonder why, if it was all so in vain, we ever got
involved in the process.

True, war is sometimes unavoidable, but I don’t think Nigeria or
Nigerians can afford, or survive another round of a bloody civil
war. Of course, it is not just the fact that such a war is likely
to lead to the disintegration of the country, because some people
will claim that this is what they want in any event, it is the
nature of the disintegration that must be feared and avoided. We
have become too divided along ethnic lines that we may need to
create tens and tens of nations out of present-day Nigeria. Each of
the so-called majority tribes in Nigeria have their own local
internecine battles being fought with the minority ethnic groups.
Just as some majority tribes insist they want to secede or break
away because they cannot stand other tribes lording it over them,
so also the smaller clans which will have become bigger groups in a
vastly reduced sub-region will complain about the overlordship of
the new majority tribe in any new nation. Our people are never
satisfied or content. There will always be room and avenue for
complaints. It is therefore not going to be as simple as many of
those calling for war think to conceptualise the numerous nations
that will be birthed by a war-ravaged Nigeria.

I have been privileged to read voraciously about the history of
wars globally. What pains me the most is that after the insanity
that started every war calms down, the antagonists would usually
sit down across a table, and dialogue with one another having
agreed to a conversation they had rejected out of hand in the past,
in their collective stupidity. Many of them would later come back
to preach about the importance of unity after wasting so many
innocent lives, but never the lives of those close to them. Those
ones are usually ensconced in safety in far-away climes.

Apart from reading, I have travelled through several war-torn
zones and saw first-hand the vestiges of mutually acquired
suspicion and the destruction and calamity that ensued following
the seeming intractable disputes that had led to the field of
battle. I was in Sierra Leone in 2001 and visited Port Loko and
Mange, towns or villages that were ravaged and devastated by the
war that raged with so much venom that hands and arms were
amputated by whether you were wearing long sleeves or short
sleeves. I wondered what on earth could have led to such meanness,
wickedness and evil. I also travelled to Liberia where, again, I
visited our soldiers who controlled ten of the 15 counties in the
country, at the time. The story was quite similar to that of Sierra
Leone. No compassion, no sympathy, no empathy. There was looting,
raping and murder all in the name and disguise of war. Evildoers in
these countries took refuge under the umbrella of war to unleash
their bestial nature on poor unsuspecting citizens who despite
their pleas and entreaties were massacred in their thousands with
great mirth and debauchery accompanying the sickening killings and
rapes.

I have also travelled to Rwanda many times in the last couple of
years and can authoritatively confirm that no country should ever
experience such a pogrom or genocide for any reason. The carnage,
bloodbath and ethnic cleansing that I heard about seemed to come
out of stories one reads in novels and fantasies only that I saw
and met those who had been unfortunate to be victims of a macabre
example of man’s inhumanity to man.

I’m particularly worried that many of those shouting war, war,
war in Nigeria hardly know the meaning of it. My visits to the
Kigali Genocide Memorial convinced me that we are playing with
naked fire. I see too many similarities to how the conflagration
started in Rwanda. Before the two main rivals in the ethnic
jingoism knew what was happening, they had started a war that
wasted too many lives. I passed through that museum again some days
ago and still had tears in my eyes. I ran into many Nigerians and
wished they will all go back as Peace Ambassadors having witnessed
the harm and suffering that a war of attrition such as that being
espoused by some of our youths and aged elders can bring.

Nearer home, I have seen the effect that a mini war can have in
the Ife-Modakeke crisis of the 1980’s. Close friends and families
suddenly became sworn enemies. People used the opportunity to
settle old scores. Young men were slain for apparently no reason.
Those who provided the guns and ammunition, the petrol and the
lighters for the killings and arson that took place hid their
closest and dearest from the blood-letting that ensued. When the
dust settled the discerning members of both communities sat down to
wonder what it was all about. However, the damage had been done!
Till this day, just as there is mutual distrust and suspicion
amongst the various majority tribes of Nigeria, so also is there
such distrust and suspicion between the Ifes and the Modakekes.

It is so disheartening that many of those controlling the
appurtenances of power in our country today once fought for the
unity of Nigeria during the civil war of 1967 to 1970. How come
they have forgotten the monstrosity and monumental tragedy that
befell Nigeria at that unfortunate moment? Why can’t these leaders
realise that our country deserves better than to be governed in
such petty manner as we now are doing? Why can’t they concentrate
on the onerous tasks of nation building instead of nation wrecking?
Nigeria is a great country that will become greater still if we
stop fanning the ethnic embers and concentrate on building a
thriving successful nation. Our diversity should be our strength
and not a weakness or an albatross around our neck. Without any
doubt, the price of peace is always cheaper than the cost of war.
Anarchy will never lead to progress and development. It can only
worsen or situation.

However, all the blame cannot be laid at the doorstep of our
leaders, especially those in government. I see middle-aged people
who were young people at the time, and were unfortunate childhood
participants, actors or spectators in disaster that was the
Nigerian civil war. This is because in reality, no region was
spared. The civil war did not in fact begin in 1967, its genesis
was in the mutiny and subsequent military putsch of January 1966.
The January 1966 affair became a raging inferno once the
retaliatory coup of July 1966 took place and given the egos and
youthful exuberance of our military leaders at the time, it was no
wonder that they committed to going down the slippery slope of war
rather than discourse. One would have thought that with age and
maturity, those leaders who are alive, and were active participants
in the turmoil that embroiled Nigeria in those crazy days, would
reflect and ensure that nothing of that nature ever occurs again in
our country. However, it is sad to see that some of them are in the
forefront of the agitation for war as means of resolving what is
after all a political issue.

The buck still stops at the table of our leaders, especially the
President, Muhammadu Buhari. He needs to work harder at reassuring
the nation that he means well for Nigeria and that he respects all
Nigerians as equals no matter where they come from. For the moment
and at this present time in our history, the President must not
only recognise the existence and utility of all regions, regardless
of their part in his electoral success, he must integrate them. It
is not too difficult to do. Our Constitution already provides the
foundation for any determined leader to seize the moment and take
the initiative. There is provision for Federal Character in most
appointments and although this has sometimes been used to crown
mediocrity over merit, in the hands of an astute manager, it can be
used to assuage and heal old wounds and to kickstart the country’s
journey towards living in harmony and unity.

I believe that we must learn to be tolerant towards each other.
Some of the complaints about our leaders’ stem from the intolerance
and impatience on both sides. This is justified because of our
history which our leaders have never properly addressed. At the
same time, I also believe that our leaders must focus mainly on the
real ills of our society especially poverty, education and
unemployment. Dealing decisively with these matters will lead to
our youths being more discerning and deciding not to be cannon
fodder for anybody. There must come a time when it should not
matter where successive Presidents come from or indeed whether they
come from the same parts as their deputies. What should matter is
merit and good governance. This can only be achieved when those
leading us abandon the seeming toga of ethnic overlords that they
are adorned with, when it is not their style or portion. This they
can only do by transparently demonstrating that they are true
nationalists and patriots and will treat all Nigerians the same
irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds.

That is the future, our future, not war, secession or
disintegration.

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