United Nations — On the International Day of Peace, Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka visited the United Nations - and called for armed intervention against the terrorist group Boko Haram in his home country of Nigeria.
"This is a violent organisation," Soyika told IPS. "What do you do with them? I am sorry, but you must fight them."
On Sep. 21, 2012 the International Day of Peace was celebrated with a debate about how to build a global culture of tolerance. Invited to participate were such superstars as actor Forest Whitaker, economist Jeffrey Sachs, and Wole Soyinka, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986.
After his speech, Soyinka spoke to IPS about the situation in his native Nigeria, where the Islamist militant group Boko Haram is responsible for thousands of deaths and the bombings of several churches in Nigeria in recent years. The group seeks to establish sharia law in the country. Their presence is particularly strong in the north of the country.
"We have an organisation which closes down schools, shoots faculty teachers, knocks out children and turns most of the north into an educational wasteland. How can we reach the children there? We must first get rid of Boko Haram," Soyinka lashed out.
"We have a contradiction," he acknowledged. "How do we get rid of Boko Haram? Violence must become involved. That is a dilemma."
Calling for armed intervention on Peace Day may certainly seem like a paradox. But Soyinka's call for attacking Boko Haram in order to stop the group's attacks on schools made more sense after Friday's debate, where speaker after speaker highlighted the importance of education to enable a global culture of peace to grow.
As stipulated in the 1999 Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace, the United Nations' primary goal is to "create and maintain world peace" through economic, social and political agreements, and in the worst cases through military intervention.
In order for such a framework to succeed, a foundation of peace and a culture of tolerance must to be built. A cornerstone in building this culture is inculcating respect for others in children.
"The real weapon of mass destruction is ignorance," said British-Iranian philanthropist Nasser David Khalili, one of the speakers during the event to emphasise the importance of schooling building a culture of peace. "The solution must be education."
Another important point came from Jeffrey Sachs, professor of sustainable development at Columbia University. "As an economist it strikes me... how hunger and poverty are incendiary parts of war," Sachs said. In the Sahel region of Mali this summer, for example, a famine sparked conflict between nomads and farmers over access to water.
Sachs drew attention to the fact that critical issues such as these receive too little attention, describing the great frustration he felt as he failed to raise money from the World Bank on behalf of Mali. "Shout Al-Qaeda, and you get millions for missiles. But try to do something preventive, and you do not get anything."
He urged global leaders to invest in "development rather than military". Globally, "we are spending more than 10 times more on the military than we do on development," Sachs said. "In the U.S. the rate is 30 to one."
U.N. Women's Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri continued with the theme of social justice in order to achieve peace, highlighting the importance of including women in poverty eradication programmes. "Women bear the brunt of poverty," Lakshmi said.
After her speech, Lakshmi told IPS that it is important to remember that even religious freedom has its limits, in reference to the use of religion as an excuse for acts of violence. "We believe that no religion sanctions, or in any way justifies, violations of human rights and women's rights," she stressed.
Film star and UNESCO goodwill ambassador Forest Whitaker concluded the event. "We must never believe that it is right to inflict pain against others, even if we do not agree with them," he said.
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@Abiamoni, does Nigeria have a friendly country anywhere in the world? Show me one and I'll give 1000 reasons why they would love to come and intervene. Oh yes, they'll intervene, but would first mortgage your resources for the next 100-years before they step foot on your soil. You fail to realize that the scourge of 419 has destroyed the reputation of a country once held in high esteem. I've yet to find anyone who speaks good about our country, except those that work hard to exploit our resources. Yes, they'll give you sugar-coated lip services and then watch you squirm in utter disgust as you search desperately to make the bitter pills bearably tasty. In their demeanour, they'll show you a sense of humility which they'll never do if you had met them under a different circumstance. In real terms, they're as deadly as they are friendly. It's either Professor Soyinka does not truly understand the environment which he interacts with on a daily basis, or perhaps, the "ogogoro" is beginning to work wonders in his brain. I want you to realise that there is no such thing as "a free lunch". You'll always somehow have to pay a prize somewhere along the line. Every community in the world has been touched by the ugliness of 419. All you need to do is to research many Court Dockets to see how many Nigerian professionals who have been jailed in the Western World for crimes they did not commit. Simply, their lawyers often ask them to "plea bargain" for lesser prison sentences rather than face adverse decisions by a "jury of their peers". And the lawyer would further add that almost 1 in every 9 juror in America shall have experienced the 419 tragedy. And they would further ask: "How do you think they'll vote if they realized you're a Nigerian?". Mind you, there is still the presumption of innocence. But for a Nigerian caught in this inescapable web, you either plead guilty for a lighter sentence for something you may not have done, or face the full biaised jury pool who would enjoy nothing better than to throw you into jail, and go to the nearest Pacific or Atlantic Ocean Beach and throw away the key so far into the ocean that by the time you are st free, your children may not even recognize who you are. Therefore, with this Western pent-up anger towards Nigeria or Nigerians, the last thing I would advocate is to have foreign troops on our soil. I still maintain that Professor Wole Soyinka may not be living in the real world. He should sometimes camouflage himself as another person and attempt to see what ordinary Nigerians experience in the West. The hatred for Nigerians is so thick you can almost cut it with a knife.
Mr. Mingione your comment is si mignone (so cute in French). The so called Nobel Laureat must be in a Vodka binge drinking for him to advocate for a foreign military incursion in a sovereign country. Doesn't he know that these monster super power countries are eagerly waiting to for the faintest cloak to invade and loot the natural resources of the so called developing countries, defile their women and children?
I was in Libya in the 1980s working to build their nuclear installations, it was a beautiful and blissful county then but now I don't even want to see any report on Libya on the television. It is utterly ruined by the NATO war machines while we the Causasus countries are left at the mercy of the ruthless Russian military.
A word is enough for the wise!
Wole Soyinka is calling for military intervention, perhaps a foreign one. What will that achieve? Certainly, more people will be killed and more lives will be destroyed as a result of his plan. Being a Nobel Prize winner does not make the person sound in judgement or moral authority. He should ask what foreign military intervention has done to help the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. Soyinka, in a magazine interview back in February, knew of politicians that are supporting this group. If he were serious about arresting the problem, he would attack the politicians and actually name the supporters rather than call for a wider war in the North. This article seems to suggest that Boko Haram exists partially to elicit Western military intervention. If that happens, it won't be long until they will eye the Niger-Delta region to get the oil wealth, or support puppet politicians from the South-east or South-South or North for that matter, that will guarantee exclusive access to oil thus losing whatever is left of our sovereignty.
It's either Wole Soyinka is insane, or he has become so disillusioned with the slow pace of progress being made by our military that his impatience has beclouded his sense of logic. I do not see the United States calling for foreign troops to invade its territory to solve its domestic problems! Nor should Nigeria's domestic problems be a subject of discussions at the United Nations. What you are basically telling the world is that your own country is incapable of solving its problems which you know full well is a direct result of poverty brought on by years of palpable neglect by our visionless military and civilian leaders. Your suggestions for a global intervention in Nigeria's domestic affairs is as unpopular as the political party which you formed. I can understand it if you are requesting for a logistical support to stem the tide of Boko Haramism, but to intimate to the public that you would prefer a foreign military intervention in Nigeria into the Boko Haram issue is a bit stretching it Mr. Soyinka. I would beg to differ with you on this, Prof. Soyinka!! Nigeria does not need any foreign military presence on its soil. Our problem is mass poverty, not religion.
On this occasion, Soyinka is stating the obvious. If a country is suffering an insurrection it cannot contain,it has every right to ask friendly countries for assistance.