Beyond display of maximum force that seems to have characterized the
invasion of the South East by the military, there exist several other
approaches to douse the growing waves of agitations in the country.
Chairman
of the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria (FEHN), Allen Onyema
and his Emory University partners on non-violence education and peace
around the world, Bernard LaFayette and Charles Alphin, are not only
convinced that Nigeria would fair better in an atmosphere of peace and
unity, they also appear to have understood dialogue as a potent tool to
foster peace in a multiethnic setting like Nigeria.
To
that extent, FEHN brought together representatives of the Indigenous
People of Biafra (IPOB), Arewa Youths Congress (AYC), O’dua Peoples
Congress (OPC) and Niger Delta youths in a five-day training to douse
tension in the country and foster a stronger, indivisible country.
Onyema
had said in his opening speech that tension was already high in the
country. He was right! Events around the country and particularly in the
Southeast in the last couple of days had proved him right.
It
was an emotion-laden event, to say the least. First, the opening
ceremony was marked with reminiscences of the late former President Umar
Musa Yar’Adua years that were marked by the Presidential Amnesty
Programme for Niger Delta Militants in which Onyema played a prominent
role.
Second,
the sitting arrangement in training hall of the Limeridge Hotel on
Chevron Way, Lekki, was marked by discrepancies as the different groups
sat according to their ethnic nationalities. But at the end of the first
day, all the participants had become friendly as they charted freely
with one another, having, in all modesty, discarded all ethnic barriers.
Third,
Lafayette, who teaches at the Emory University and Chairman, Board of
Directors of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference gave the
participants a food for thought: “The world needs Nigeria and the huge
natural and human resources it has to offer. Nigeria should live in
peace and end all the agitations and violence. The country must be an
example to the rest of the world.”
What’s
more, Onyema, who went down memory lane, said the country was in the
situation it is today because a section wants to appropriate its
resources to themselves to the detriment of the other sections.
He used the analogy of three brothers who own a bottle of water but which the eldest had claimed belonged to him alone.
“If
the two other brothers approach their elder brother through violence or
threats, they may not get some of the water in the bottle, but if they
dialogue on the need to share the water, applying wisdom and tact, they
may convince the senior brother to share the water equally with them,”
he said.
To
that extent, he was quick to add that the other sections that are
feeling cheated should use dialogue and non-violent means to demand
their rights rather than violent agitations and threats of secession. He
charged Nigerians, especially the younger generation to stand and fight
together, rather than fight themselves.
In
his words: “We have to join hands together to confront the common
enemies who have held our great country by the jugular. We have to come
together to change the old order.
“We
have to fight for each other rather than fight each other. Until we
learn to fight for each other, national unity will continue to elude us.
We must address the conflicts to be able to cohabit peacefully together
in a greater country.”
Having
said this, Onyema stressed the need for participants to interact and
make friends with one another, insisting that at the end of the
training, each participant would have made at least two or three friends
from other parts of the country. The arrangement worked like magic as
the sitting arrangement along ethnic lines on the first day of the
programme gave way to a community of friends sitting together and
agreeing on a stronger, indivisible country.
Participants
who spoke to The Guardian during and after the training could not agree
more that the programme came at a very auspicious time in the history
of Nigeria.
President
of Arewa Transformational and Empowerment Initiative (ATEI), Mohammed
Danjuma, said his hope for the continued existence of Nigeria as a
country in spite of the differences, was renewed. He expressed
willingness to work with youths from the Eastern part to move the
country forward, saying Nigerians must close ranks and come together for
the good of Nigeria.
Danjuma,
who observed that Nigerians were so engulfed in self-preservation and
seeking justice for themselves and their ethnic groups, while fighting
each other, said the training has brought home the lesson that injustice
anywhere was a threat to justice everywhere.
“The
common enemies of Nigerians are poverty, insecurity, joblessness and a
host of other social issues, which do not discriminate between the Igbo
man, Hausa man or the Yoruba man. So, we might as well come together and
close our rank to see how we can fix this country because it has the
potentials for us to prosper together,” he said.
He
urged the northerners to see how they could work with their brothers
from across the country in an era of inclusiveness, togetherness and
prosperity rather seek sectional interests because a stronger and bigger
Nigeria is better than Biafra, Arewa or Oduduwa republics.
The
younger brother to the leader of IPOB who led the team from the East,
Emmanuel Kanu, who also shared gifts to the participants from the North,
said the move symbolised peace, a new and better understanding between
the two ethnic groups and others in the country.
Commending
the northern group for their declaration of support, Kanu said the move
was the right step in the right direction. He, therefore, urged IPOB
members both at home and in the Diaspora to make non-violent agitation
their objective.
Responding,
Onyema, who doubles as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air
Peace Limited, lauded the peace accord between the two parties, said the
country would surely change for the better.
I
think conflict in itself is not too bad, it can be a catalyst for
positive change and we see that the tension that has been generated in
the country today will lead us to a new Nigeria, which all of us can be
proud of without shedding blood or having any issue”, he said.
A
participant from the OPC group, Kayode Ariwayo, said the training
brought home the essence of love and peaceful coexistence in the
country.
FEHN
is sponsoring about 50 of the participants, who passed an oral and
written test at the end of the training are proceeding to the Emory
University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America (U.S.A.) for a
nonviolence education programme.
He
hoped the Federal Government would replicate and facilitate this kind
of programme in the 774 local governments in the country to promote
peace, understanding and love for each other among Nigerians.
Speaking
to The Guardian, a former Niger Delta agitator who had benefitted from
the Presidential Amnesty programme, who also attended the training,
appealed to all ethnic groups in the country to tow the line of peace
and non-violent agitations.
“I
appeal to all groups to embrace peace and non-violence in their
requests and agitations. More importantly, the Federal Government should
minimise the use of force on civilians seeking their rights. You use
force on animals and not citizens. Let the government and the people
embrace peace so that the country can move forward.”
