Leadership (Abuja)
Habu Dawaki
30 April 2008
opinion
Through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can't murder murder.
Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can't establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hatred. Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that.... Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." "Where do we go from here?" August 1967
Economic Cooperation
Kofi Annan once pointed out, "... We were concerned – and rightly so – with issues of peace and security. But there will be no peace and no security, even for the most privileged amongst us, in a world that remains divided between extremes of wealth and poverty, health and disease, knowledge and ignorance, freedom and oppression. Surely we should have learnt that by now."
I think addressing the roots of conflicts in Kaduna and Nigeria in general is really addressing economic development, human rights and democracy, environmental degradation and lots more.
Perhaps the most significant contribution that governments can make to the security of the state is to work together to generate wealth and to lift the economic and social indicators of her peoples.
Oscar Romero, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Salvador, said in a sermon shortly before he was assassinated by a gunman while presiding at Mass on 24 March 1980, 'It is the poor who tell us what the city is.' It is those who are marginalised from the life of the city who really understand how it works. And it is only when those people participate fully in the life of the city's structures of wealth and power, that the city will be a good city, a city of justice and peace.
The reality of life for countless people whose anger against the society of which the high standard of living is flaunted daily by the few privileged, while majority are living far below the poverty line devoid of food, safe drinking water, medicine and other basic necessities of life, is bound to foster the seeds of violence.
Don't forget, we have to create conditions and opportunities where peace is more profitable than violence. Tomorrow's gangsters are the child of today's poorest of the poor whose talents and potentials are left undetected, unharnessed, unappreciated, uncelebrated. For tomorrow's hoodlums are the children in today's misery camps.
The XIVth Dalai Lama said, "Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free."
We need to maintain economic stability and create a more development- friendly economic climate that can help bridge the widening gap between rich and poor.
Youth Development
The youth play a crucial role in making peace a reality. Collectively, they are at high risk of cyclical poverty and should be the focus of increasing human capacity potential through formal and informal education and entry into the labour force. Creating an enabling environment for youth to operate is critical.
Remember, unemployed youths are ready constituency of disgruntled people who might be mobilized for violence. The poverty and frustration of so many of our people is a fertile breeding ground for violent conflict. We must develop programs that could help ensure the economic, social, and political stability of our state while combating ignorance, poverty, environmental degradation, infectious disease, and other threats to security.
Greater attention needs to be directed towards the needs, rights and employment possibilities of adolescents and young people. Equally, their age coincides with the commencement of sexual activity and reproduction and a high percentage of new HIV infections occur among people between the ages of 15 and 25.
Don't forget the youth/children constitute the majority of the populace. They should be the focus of increasing human capacity potential through formal and informal education. Vocational training, business skills development and macro-credit schemes for young people should be a matter of Government priority.
Education
Education is the principal means to build a Culture of Peace. Maria Montessori reminds us, "Preventing conflicts is the work of politics, establishing peace is the work of education."
The seed of violence can only be stamped out by massive education, public enlightenment, poverty reduction, and good governance, rule of law, justice and fair play.
Education is the bedrock of any society that wants to leap into the future greatness. Knowledge and empowerment will save the jobless youths from various social vices and unnecessary manipulations by selfish leaders and politicians for conflicts and to settle bitter ethnic, religious and political animosity.
Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream, a potential which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our land.
Every aspect of education should be mobilized towards this end. Particularly, the education of women and youth (almajiri) is key to both economic and peace developments. Everyone must be educated for peace. All must be taught that it is essential to go beyond selfish behavior and commit ourselves to the development of others, to justice and to establish amicable relations between human beings.
We need a solid program to educate the private schools, public schools, secondary schools and tertiary institutions: What is peace? How do we define a culture of war and violence vs. a culture of peace and non-violence? Why is it important? Who is responsible? What should we do? Where should it go? How we fit in as an individual and on a global front? What does an ideal 'Peaceful environment' look like? Etc
In this regard, the media can play a vital role in educating the public on peace and security. As such promoting conflict-sensitive journalism may prevent media from acting as a catalyst to escalation in times of conflict.
Leadership
Let us not forget the leadership question. Nigerians are not bereaved of ideas and knowledge which are abundant, but only lacks the simple leadership and political will to do the right things for the good of all.
According to Chinua Achebe, author of 'Things Fall Apart,' "The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership ...We have lost the twentieth century; are we bent on seeing that our children also lose the twenty-first? God forbid!"
The greatest national challenge facing the giant of Africa and the most populous black nation on earth is leadership. Nigeria lacks quality leadership that is yet to transform economic wealth and distribution of state resources meaningfully into the lives of the governed.
Until leadership is accepted as service to the nation and mankind and not the opportunity for personal wealth or enrichment, until Nigeria experience leadership that makes citizenry central to development and first in the affairs of the nation state, it shall remain in the same spot while the people live in penury for many generations to come.
It gladdens one's heart that Mr. President has been preaching the doctrine of servant leadership and the rule of law. This is a complete departure to what we have witnessed in recent past.
Leadership comes with accountability; Leadership is about serving the people. Let us, therefore, not leave a legacy of high-sounding ambitions and unrealized dreams. Let us, together, set out to make a positive difference. Let us stay the course and not deviate from the chosen path of selfless devotion to duty, honour, integrity and diligence which our founding fathers bequeathed to us.
Distinguished participants, it is pertinent to note that nation building is not something we can wish into existence, a nation is respected when it is built on the rule of law and order.
Let us continue to pursue the policy of sacrifice and hard work. Let there be zero tolerance for waste and corruption in public life, let there be leadership by example.
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