Before The War Machines
Are Rolled Out – By
Ayobami Oyalowo
August 14th, 2012 by Editor
“If we(Niger Delta Militants)
begin throwing bombs, nobody
will stay in Abuja” – Asari
Dokubo
Our country Nigeria has been
undergoing lots of tumults in
the recent past. Shortly after
the advent of civilian rule in
May 1999, we have had all
sorts of ethnic nationalities and
militia: all threatening the
peace in one form or another.
We have had the OPC in the
South West, most especially
within the Mushin/Idi Araba axis
in Lagos; we have had the
Arewa Youths in the North, the
Kano and Bauchi mass killings,
the issue of non-indigene in Jos,
the Sharia riots in Kaduna, the
mass killings, kidnapping and
pipeline vandalisation in the
Niger Delta, MASSOB (Biafra)
agitations in the South East,
and virtually every part of
Nigeria has either experienced,
or still experiencing, one form
of armed agitations or another.
Enter the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna
Lidda’await Wal-Jihad, known
as Boko Haram. At their entry
into our psyche, all those ethnic
militia agitations pale into
insignificance. They have
engaged in incessant killing and
wanton destructions of lives
and properties, sparing no one
and making no coherent or
intelligible demands. This
treatise is not about the merits
or demerits of Boko Haram or
others, rather we wish to seek
what the impact these
drumbeats of war will have on
Nigerians.
Why are we at this point in our
development beating the
drums of war? It is not too far
fetched. Biting poverty in the
midst of plenty, while elected
and appointed Government
officials and top civil servant
live in walled opulence. The
current population statistics put
the population of youths in
Nigeria, under 30 years, at
about 70%. So if 70% are
under 30 and unemployment is
at another 50-60% while the
employed ones can barely
make ends meet, it is clear that
we have a huge army of
potential robbers, suicide
bombers, killers and sundry
criminals. Nigeria is sitting on a
keg of gunpowder, while
playing with a potent box of
match by the corner.
So many public and non public
figures have come out to give
their two cents, but in this
entire cacophony, one thing is
clear: most of those
commentators appear not to
understand what they are
saying. Most people are
apparently playing to the
gallery, beating war drums or
simply self serving. I pity most
average people who don’t
understand that war serves the
upper class and destroys the
people. War kills the poor and
profits the wealthy and their
corporations.
War is devastating and
destructive, as we are only sure
of seeing the beginning of a
war: no one can predict its
outcome or ending. War is
often the effort of the rich and
upper class, striving to maintain
control and relevance while
using the poor as pawn in their
devastating and expensive
bloody game of chess. The
American public can attest to
the huge financial and material
losses the common man has
suffered in America’s attempt
at world dominance by
engaging in senseless wars all
over the globe. Yet not one
billionaire owner of War
Corporation has lost his life or
that of his family member. Only
the poor die and lose their
income. It was reported that
the Pentagon, in 2008, spent
more money every five
seconds than the average
American earned in a year.
I was fortunate to have
interacted with some old men
who were either part of the
Biafran war or were alive
during that period. I was also
privileged to have met the
black scorpion, Major General
Benjamin Adekunle, during one
of my visits home. I also saw a
clip of the suffering of the
Igbos during the period of the
Biafran war. I can tell you
unequivocally that war is not
pleasant. War is a destroyer
and people are the sufferers.
People are very complicated –
they will make problems even if
there aren’t any. But most
people making problems either
do not have an idea of the
consequences or have an
alternative escape planned.
People are so full of hate for
one another that they make
stupid reasons to have war
even if they are very well
aware of what war is. It will
cause damage to both sides
and ruin the lives of people.
Today there are many civil wars
around the world, but for very
stupid reasons, you could
actually say for nothing. But
once it starts, it is too late to
stop. Many people die, or
become invalids, or have to
find new places to live; the
cities become destroyed and
there are many other
complications. Families get
separated and in some cases
most don’t ever unite again. I
came in contact with lots of
Liberian ladies, many were little
girls at the outbreak of the
Liberian civil war, today they
are permanently separated
from their families, their dreams
and education truncated, while
among them are today living as
prostitutes in Nigeria, Togo,
Benin Republic, Ghana and
other countries along the west
coast.

I also read the story of Ranka
Tosanovic, a seventeen year
old Bosnian girl. She and her
family were victims of the
Bosnian- Serb war. A war that
lasted about four years and
was so devastating and divisive
to the point that the three
warring factions of Bosnian,
Serbians and Muslims are not at
peace even as we speak today.
The war has also left the
country divided and Balkanized
permanently. She detailed the
separations of her family; some
members were never to be
seen again till today. I saw the
agony she and her mother and
grandmother went through as
the men weren’t allowed to
escape.
War is the basest form of
settling dispute and rancour.
Humans, due to our nature and
physiological make up, will
forever have conflicting
interests, but as intelligent and
endowed beings, we have
inbuilt capacity to reason and
dialogue through any situations.
But due to selfishness, personal
ambition and insatiable greed
of the rich, we often neglected
that inbuilt capacity and resort
to our basest of instincts -
warring and fighting. Animals
are permitted, as territorial
beasts, to fight, conquer and
maintain their territories, but
humans as higher animals often
resort to that base instinct of
lower animals to settle the
minutest of disputes, due to
greed of the upper class to
continually dominate and
exploit the poor to their own
advantage.
When children lose their lives in
war, it is usually the poor
ghetto or village or those
silent ones that no one pays
attention to. War is a
systematic rape and looting, it
is never a means to protect
anybody. Women are
systematically and continuously
raped, children die of hunger
and preventable diseases, lives
become short and nasty and
brutish and most especially
dreams and aspirations are
permanently or completely
truncated.
Somalia gave the world a great
champion but Britain took in a
war victim, who arrived their
shore at the age of 8, couldn’t
speak a word of English, but
toady, Mo Farah is a double
Olympic champion. A loss to
Somalia and Africa, but a
blessing to a more organized
and life respecting society,
Great Britain.
Note, if we allow the war
drummers to push us into an
ignominious bloodbath, only
the poor, the weak, the women
and children will die and suffer
the consequence of the rich
man’s war. Those calling for war
today will be no where to be
found. Their children are in push
schools abroad and have dual
citizenship as none of the
children of the elites are
currently in Nigeria. The Igbos
as we speak are yet to recover
from the devastating effect of
the Nigerian Civil war 42 years
after it ended. But Ojukwu who
started the war not only got his
confiscated properties returned
and his full benefits paid, his
wife is today rewarded with the
post of an Ambassador, while
most other Biafran war
veterans have either died of
hunger and poverty or are
living in abject poverty,
forgotten and neglected by
the larger society.
Asari Dokubo has been going
around calling for war and
killing Northerners, yet no one
in Government is raising an
eyebrow. He has been a loud
and vociferous proponent of
war, a man who has never been
known for any productive
human venture or enterprise,
his only skill and claim to fame
lies in subversive activities
towards his country. He has
excelled in kidnapping, killing,
maiming, pipeline vandalization
and every other imaginable
criminal activity.
War is never a solution to any
problem; the Nigerian
government will do well to
address lingering issues of
perceived marginalization,
devastating poverty and all
other known cases of social
injustices. If we allow another
civil war, any will die but those
proponents of war will become
wealthier and richer at the
expense of innocent blood.
Schools should be encouraged
to teach history of past wars
and its devastating effects.
There can be no peace in the
absence of justice, equity and
fairness. But under no
circumstance can we afford
another civil war. Nobody ever
wins in a war, everybody is a
loser.

Culled from www.ekekeee.com/?p=3332