On May 18, the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library Museum joined other museums across the world to celebrate the International Museum Day. The International Council of Museums (ICOM) set aside that date for the celebration of the event. Sir MARTINS AKANBIEMU reports.
The objective of the International Museum Day, which started in 1977 after its adoption at the ICOM’s 21st General Assembly in Moscow, Russia, is to raise awareness on: “museums are important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of culture and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among peoples”.
Marked on or around May 18 yearly, with a theme, the events to celebrate the day can last for a day, a weekend or a week. Participation is growing among museums the world over. Last year, more than 35, 000 museums took part in it in 145 countries, including Nigeria.
Sequel to its inauguration on March 4 and 5, the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), that has a museum as one of its main units, joined the league of museums with its maiden celebration.
The theme for this year’s International Museum Day is: “Museums and contested histories: Saying the unspeakable in Museums”. The Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library marked the day with an exhibition and symposium around the theme: “The Nigerian Civil War: looking backwards, Moving forward”, in tandem with the global theme. There is no gainsaying that the civil war, which ravaged the country for 30 months between 1967 and 1970, represents one aspect of Nigeria’s contested histories which has eluded open and free discussions because of the sentiments and emotions associated with it.
While the OOPL exhibition highlighted the ravages of war, the symposium featured panelists who, from various perspectives, painted a gloomy, horrendous picture of war. In his keynote address, Dr. Abu Solomon Edet, an expert in History and International Studies, highlighted the role of museums in national development and condemned the deplorable state of Nigerian museums, seeking a redress for them.
The lead panelist, Chijioke Iwuamadi, an expert in Development Studies, exposed the inadequacies that led to the failure of the National War Museum in Umuahia to live up to its mission, which is to discourage any agitations for war. He recommended, among others, that “the National Commission for Museum and Monuments (NCMM), and museums at the state offices should be organising periodic public programmes in collaboration with organisations and development partners that promotes (sic) national reconciliation, national integration, social cohesion, peace and development.”
Other speakers included Dr. Constance Omawunmi Kola-Lawal, Dr. Philip Akpen, Mr. Martins Oloja, Comrade Hamzat Lawal and Students’ Union Representatives included Comrade Lauretta Oyenwenosa Obakpolo (UNIBEN), Comrade Daminabo Alali Daniel (RIVSUNIV) and Oyinkansola Haruna (Bells University of Technology) agreed on the futility of war as a way to resolve conflicts, no matter the complexity. War, according to them, only triggered off sufferings, hunger, economic dislocation, pains, disruptive demographic migration, maiming and above all, untimely death. With references to countries, such as Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and other flash points in the world where war has taken its toll, the panelists noted that women and children were usually mostly affected and this impacted negatively on population growth.
At the end of the Symposium, which was attended by participants drawn from different levels of society across the nation, a list of recommendations was drawn to be communicated to the appropriate authorities.
Disadvantages of war
War is often referred to as the armed conflict between two groups or countries, involving counter attacks. War always brings negative impacts on the environment, social behaviour and economy of the people. However, it is easier to recover from the economic and environmental effects of war than from the social and psychological effects.
War expert, Craig Weller, identifies three universal major disadvantages of war as follows:
“First, war is expensive and all money spent is lost. The labour and the material cost of war is astronomical. There are millions of people who are directly and indirectly involved in a war effort and they all have to be paid and their contribution to a better society is zero. Their efforts all go into destruction until the war is over. The materials are all for war and likewise contribute nothing to creating a better society. Using the United States of America as an example, the money spent on Iraq and Afghanistan is money lost and not spent on universal health care, education, better public transportation, better roads, improved Internet Infrastructure, jobs programs, unemployment insurance and much, much more. America has spent $800billion on the Afghan war, losing as at the last count 2,249 soldiers to death yet, the Commander is still requesting for over 2000 additional soldiers to reinforce the foot soldiers. All that money spent on the war has gone down the drain.
Secondly, war destroys families, communities and tolerance. Young men and women die in combat and leave broken families behind. Civilian casualties leave orphans to fend for themselves; war leaves a tremendous amount of injured and maimed people with no means to care for themselves, putting a burden on the people around them. Communities are destroyed, giving rise to refugee problem and creating unrest in other countries as it is being experienced in Europe today and most of all, it creates enemies. War creates hatred that lasts for generations. For instance, some people in the American South are still bitter over what happened to their grandparents after over 150 years. It is like that the world over and hatred creates new problems.
Lastly, the problems created by war persist. War leaves in its wake broken, but living people, whether through injury of the body or mind or both. And these people are seldom well cared for, even in the developed countries. The people who start wars are very seldom interested in the wellbeing of those who do the actual fighting. Even after the war is over, money is continually paid for generations to survivors of that war as shown in the American situation below:
The last pensioner of the war for American independence died in 1911. The last pensioner of the war of 1812 died in 1946.
The last civil war widow died in 2003.
The last child of a civil war veteran is still alive.
The moral here is that almost anything else is better than war because of the untoward consequences”.
In a paper titled: Traditional Institutions in Nigeria and the challenge of re – Engineering viable local economies, he delivered during the Traditional Rulers Day as part of activities marking the 50th Anniversary of the creation of Rivers State, the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar 111, charged leaders to guard against another civil war because “she cannot survive it. Take it or leave it, the Nigerian civil war, which raged for 30 months, represents a dark watershed in the annals of Nigeria’s chequered history. It was a bitter experience nobody wishes to talk about but it did happen with its untoward consequences”.
The Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library’s celebration of the International Museum Day would go down in history as the day it sent a strong anti-war message to warmongers to sheath their swords and explore other peaceful means of conflict resolution as war does no one any good. Rather, war is “destructive, horrific and traumatising”.
A non-governmental and non–profit organisation (NGO), the International Council of Museums maintains formal relations with the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), and is the sole international body for museums and museum professionals with a global scope, committed to the promotion and protection of the world’s cultural and natural heritage, present and future, tangible and intangible. The organisation has corresponding national committees in almost all UNESCO member-states, including Nigeria. It is noteworthy that the Resident Curator of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library doubles as the Secretary General of both the Museums Association of Nigeria and Nigeria’s ICOM National Committee.
