Ayogu Eze
1 August 2005
opinion
Lagos — If a choice were to be made between peace and war, I would without question opt for peace. In war, as in all situations of catastrophe, very little if anything that can aid human development can be achieved. In wartime, the only industries that thrive are those of propaganda, armament and the war effort.
Everything else suffers. The women and children are driven into the forest while men, that is, those who are foolhardy enough to parade the war-weary streets, are conscripted and thrown into the war arena, uncooked and unprepared for the steely encounter ahead. The consequences are very easy to imagine, and possibly visualize.
Every effort is invested in turning the truth upside down or downside up, in a beat-me-if-you-can race to win the propaganda duel, because the victory or loss in warfare starts with victory or loss in the control of the theatre of propaganda, where subterfuge and half-truths are freely traded. No time is spared for any creative venture or anything that can put food on the table. Malnutrition and diseases roam unrestrained.
As for the arms and ammunition for the war, it is another matter altogether. It is usually a bazaar for the men of steel, those who have the technology and the wherewithal, including of course a dead conscience, to compete in the high water game of arms dealing and wheeling.
Economies of nations thither and seesaw in the hands of arms harlots, who move them from points of surfeit to areas of need. In this case also, nothing is achieved except mortgaging the resources and in most cases the future of the nations at the receiving end, to endless years of servitude and prayerful debt reparation.
Either is just one side of the same bad coin, which is neither legal tender for Caesar or for anybody else, for that matter. It does not now matter whether the reparation comes in the form of hard cash, payment in kind or in missed opportunities altogether.
This is why I tremble when I pick the papers these days to see some war mongers at their old game. Enugu is increasingly in the news, and for the wrong reasons. There is an undisguised effort to disrupt the peace which has become Enugu well in the past couple of years.
Perceptively, there is every deliberate effort to rake up a reason for a fight. Those behind the drumbeats of war leave nobody in doubt as to their motive and their preparedness to go against the well known wisdom that a fight must necessary be between two consenting or dissenting parties.
They leave a clear signal, by their conduct and their equally macabre and tendentious posturing, that they crave attention at all costs. Write-up after write-up, most of them not replied, dress Enugu in deliberately mutated dull colours, all in an effort to provoke a brawl, even when it has become clear that the other party has no appetite for such distractive engagements. Old and time-worn issues are brushed up and presented as fresh occurrences. Phantom issues are equally dished out to the unsuspecting public as if they really exist.
That is hardly my concern. Half-truths and outright falsehoods become stunted in the face of hard facts on the ground. My worry here is that Enugu spent some one year in the not-too-distant past warding off self-serving enemies and story tellers, who left the ball in the willful and bitter pursuit of the star player's leg, knowing as they do that once the bulwark is sidelined, the opposing team will be at their mercy.
The cost of those unnecessary and avoidable distractions can better be appreciated against the many mouth-watering development projects that have occurred in Enugu since the return of peace about three years ago. Before Enugu was enveloped by the smoke of that unnecessary controversy four years ago, over 500 kilometers of asphalt road were constructed besides nearly 30 cottage hospitals and electricity supply to over 120 communities.
During that one year, eaten up by the cankerworm of propaganda and counter propaganda, nothing meaningful was achieved. The fast-track road development, that was becoming the model in the land, almost came to a halt. Everything, including the people suffered. Little wonder there was undisguised ululation when the war drums were tucked away by those who wielded them.
Soon afterwards the government went down to business. A brand new ultra-modern university sprang up at Agbani, complemented by the equally ambitious teaching hospital within the Enugu metropolis. Then followed the international conference center, the judicial headquarters complex, the New Haven dual carriage way, the Ebeano tunnel, the first in Africa, and many other breath-taking projects. The list is endless, to the glory of God and the benefit of the Enugu people!
Anyone in doubt should have listened to President Olusegun Obasanjo when he received a delegation from Enugu, led by Governor Chimaroke Nnamani himself, recently. The president reeled off the many projects of Governor Nnamani.
Has the president been equally bought over? It will be absurd for anybody to accuse the president of bias in the Enugu palaver. He spoke with so much conviction and flair that it was obvious he was talking about projects he knows as he knows the palms of his hands. Like many Nigerians who have been to Enugu, he cannot be swayed by a contrary portrayal of the achievements that have been wrought under Governor Nnamani.
Again Governor Nnamani's achievements are still not the issue here. The projects speak for themselves, and anyone in doubt should visit Enugu to see things live and direct.
The issue is that Enugu is a state that came about after many battles against injustice, criminal neglect and underdevelopment. The founding fathers had a dream of taking their destiny in their hands. They dreamed giant dreams about the gains of self determination. They forged their vision on the anvil of their collective suffering; hence they strove to lay the ground rules for peace, harmony and brotherhood.
They placed a lot of premium on being each other's keeper in the hope that that will eliminate the dog-eat-dog situation that watered the ground for the more than 30-year fight to snatch Enugu from the iron grip of their more powerful and better connected brothers, who apparently profited from Enugu's backwardness.
Embedded in that dream is the rapid transformation of the socio-cultural landscape of the state through accelerated and aggressive infrastructure development.
To catch up with her neighbours, the State's forefathers laid up grand plans, even if only in their hearts, for the Enugu of their dreams - a land of peace and plenty, peopled by very modest and honest people, not steeped in the cloak and dagger game of robbing Peter to pay Paul, but propelled by the ideal of greater good for the greater number. They never imagined or dreamt of predatory warfare among the wawas, whether it be among masquerades or men, where undoing one another shall become the battle cry.
I am certain that they turn in their graves when they peep and behold the masquerade they spent their useful years to call into existence dancing naked on the highway, as the so-called elite are now doing in their unbridled battle for supremacy. Those still alive may just dash off to join the rest, unsettled by the shenanigans and braggadocio of the elite. Can any member of the elite, should that become the case, God forbid, plead innocence to the charge of murder, either as individuals or as a group?
Enugu shall profit by her people working together under one umbrella, as one family. They are known in Nigeria for being people who do not quarrel over what easily become incendiary and divisive in other cultures. They are noted for their humility and strong belief in the supremacy of God in the affairs of men.
As God fearing people, I urge them to sheath their swords since they know that all power belongs to God and that nobody who is not in GodÃs plan can achieve power no matter how clever he or she may be. If that be the case, they should, as the Bible enjoins, respect people in authority since they are put there by God. People should be wise enough to accept what they cannot change.
Besides, it is honourable to embrace peace. The same Bible tells us in Proverbs 203 that avoiding a fight is a mark of honour; only fools insist on quarreling. I know that our people in Enugu are not fools by any stretch of the imagination.
Enugu has emerged as the stone which the builders rejected which in the end has become the head corner stone. Over the years, Enugu has provided leadership in the East. The present administration has equally not let the people down in terms of providing that leadership. What then is the bone of contention?
If it is 2007 as some people want us to believe, I think we miss the point. If the first child has not started toddling, is it likely that the second would run? The Chimaroke government should be given the chance to wind up its activities, more so when it is on the home stretch already.
Is it not too late in the day to begin now to deploy rough tackles in a fight that is already won and lost, in the same way that it is unreasonable to throw punches at 2007, which is still some two cool years away?
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