“There are good men in every land; the tree of life has many branches and roots; let not the topmost twig presume to think that it alone has sprung from the mother earth; we did not choose our races by ourselves; Jews, Muslims, Christians, all alike are men; let me hope I have found in you a man”. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Today’s article was first published in this column on February 26, 2010. It was the entitled ‘Solution to Terrorism in Nigeria’. The article is actually an excerpt from a lecture prepared by yours sincerely, the delivery of which the Christian wing of Nigerian Inter Religious Council (NIREC), prevented with unbridled audacity. That lecture was supposed to be delivered in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, where NIREC held a meeting on finding ‘Solution to Terrorism’ in Nigeria. Two persons had been nominated and invited to deliver lectures on that crucial issue. One of them was a Professor from the University of Jos who was nominated by CAN. The other was yours sincerely as the nominee of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA). At that time, the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Dr. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, and Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor were the heads of NSCIA and CAN respectively. And as co-Chairmen of NIREC, the two of them were present at that meeting.
Antecedent
Some weeks before the meeting, my prepared lecture had been sent to the organizers on their request. But unknown to me and the NSCIA, some CAN members of NIREC had held a secret meeting to arrange the prevention of the delivery of that lecture having gone through its contents in advance. Thus, when we got to the venue of the meeting, they raised objection to the presentation of my lecture and threatened to walk out on the Muslim members if the latter insisted on its presentation. As a demonstration of maturity and tolerance, fter some arguments on the issue, the NSCIA members decided to let them have their way in the interest of peace and harmony. However, a few weeks later, the lecture was published in this column in form of an article and since the column is also online, reactions to the article came in scores from all parts of the world. The repetition of its publication here is in response to the demad of some readers who think it is more relevant to this time than when it was first published. Here it is:
Observation
Perhaps the world is restive today because some people do not agree with the quoted axiomatic poem at the opening of this article. Those who constitute the topmost twig on the tree of life are hardly convinced that the food which keeps them aloft is supplied by the roots of that same tree hence their trampling on those roots.
Qur’anic Revelation
The Almighty Allah who created the entire universe had revealed to us in Qur’an 49:13, over 1400 years ago thus: “Oh mankind! We created you as males and females, and we classified you into races and tribes that you may interact (and benefit from your diversity); surely the best of you are the ones who fear God most”.
Analysis
On the tree of life, there can be no foliage without stem just as there can be no stem without roots. The fact that the roots are buried beneath the earth while the stem stands tall above it does not make the roots inferior. As a matter of fact the stem subsists above because the roots hold forth beneath the earth.
It will be parochial and self-deceptive to think that the current trend of terrorism around the world is just about religion. The factors that gave rise to terrorism clearly transcend religion. Other prominent factors such as political, economic, social and cultural ideologies, which had been bones of contention for centuries among nations, are more attributable to terrorism today than religion. If violence is what constitutes terrorism, then, it never emanated from religion though religion has mostly been used as a cover up and blamed for it.
Genesis of Terrorism
As at the time when the first act of terrorism was perpetrated by a Jewish Zealot group, about 2000 years ago, neither Christianity nor Islam had taken any firm root. Although Prophet Isa (Joshua) who later became Jesus on the tongues of English speakers had just come and gone by then, his divine mission had not reached the Gentiles who named it Christianity and spread it to other parts of what is now known as Europe. And by that time, Muhammad (SAW), the Prophet of Islam, had not been born in Arabia.
Therefore, the Jewish terrorism that began in year 6 AC was rather a violent expression of resentment for domination over the Jews by the Roman gentiles than a fight between two religions. By connotation, that resentment was a resistance to the domination of a culture by another culture. Thus, as it was in the beginning, so it is today.
International Terrorism
Today’s international terrorism, tragic and condemnable as it is, only accentuates the bitter resistance to domination of certain cultures by others especially as exhibited by the relationship between the West and the East.
Invention of Bomb
In modern time, the origin of bomb invention and detonation as an instrument of that resistance which came to be called terrorism today goes back to 1939. In August that year, a German American physicist Albert Einstein wrote a letter to the then U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt to hint him of the possibility of inventing a powerful explosive device through the fission of uranium. With that, he said, it would be possible to enter the just ensuing European war strongly. He then warned President Roosevelt against the danger of allowing other nations to develop it before the US. In response, the U.S. government established a top secret Manhattan Project in 1942 to develop an atomic device. The leader of that Project was a U.S. Army Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves whose team worked in several locations but largely at Los Alamos, New Mexico, under the direction of American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The team finally designed and built the first atomic bomb which was first tested at Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16, 1945.
The energy released from that explosion was equivalent to about 20,000 tons of Trinitrotoluene (TNT). And towards the end of the World War II, precisely on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima killing about 60000 to 70000 people within minutes. It was followed by another which was dropped on the city of Nagasaki three days later on August 9, 1945, killing about 40000 people. The first bomb dropped on Hiroshima was called ‘Little Boy’. The second one dropped on Nagasaki was named ‘Fat Man’. The single explosion on Hiroshima destroyed 68% of the city and damage 24% of what remained of that city.
Japa’s Reaction
As a result of that unprecedented calamity, Japan which fought the war on the side of Germany was forced to surrender unconditionally to the allied forces on August 14, 1945. Thus, in less than one week, America conquered Japan with the help of atomic bomb and thereby sent a frightening signal to other countries that had ambition for war.
From thence, atomic bomb became the darling weapon of all rival powers and the race for acquiring it thus began in earnest especially when it was seen as a new commercial venture.
Possessors of Atomic Weapons
Today, the United States and seven other countries have openly declared that they possess atomic weapons and have conducted one or more nuclear test explosions to demonstrate their military capabilities to assume domineering power over other nations or ruin the world. Those other countries are: Russia which first tested her own in 1949 under the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR); Britain (1952); France (1960); China (1964); India (peaceful test in 1974 and nuclear test in 1998); Pakistan (1998); and North Korea (2006).
The Stand of Israel
On her own, Israel is generally believed to possess weapons of mass destruction even though she has not owned up to that fact because she has never openly conducted any nuclear test. Thus, the total number of countries generally recognized as possessors of nuclear weapons, including Israel, is nine.
A tenth country, (South Africa), also once admitted that it developed a small arsenal of nuclear weapons which she completed in 1977, but which she claimed to have dismantled in the early 1990s when that country’s Apartheid regime wanted to hand over power to the indigenes.
The Role of USSR
When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, three of the 15 newly independent countries under its former imperial authority had nuclear weapons on their territories. By the mid-1990s however, the three countries: Belarus , Kazakhstan , and Ukraine had transferred all their nuclear weapons to Russia. Of the nine states recognised as possessing nuclear weapons, therefore, only five have graduated into develweapons known as thermonuclear arms. They are the United States which first tested it in 1952; Russia (1953); Britain (1957); China (1967) and France (1968). The five countries have since constituted themselves into super powers having created monopoly for the device.
However, some other countries are believed to have secretly developed thermonuclear weapons but reattention to themselves unnecessarily and thereby attract the UN sanctions.
Proliferation
At a time, the fear of proliferation of nuclear arse the idea of Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty which was signed in 1968. By that initiative, virtually all countries of the world, besides the known nine nuclear nations, had since formally pledged not to manufacture those weapons. The pledge was under the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which came into force in 1970. The treaty has since been ratified by about 187 non-nuclear weapon states.
However, efforts to curb nuclear proliferation have faced a series of new major challenges. First, the kistani nuclear expert named Abdul Qadeer Khan, has shown that nuclear proliferation could be actively assisted not only by national governments, but also by private persons and organisations that have access to its key knowledge and equipment. For instance, Khan’s sale to Libya of all the key elements needed to build a gas centrifuge uranium enrichment plant and a proven nuclear weapon design was unprecedented. The same Khan was later suspected to have transferred most, if not all, of these to Iran and North Korea, as well. And who knows, there may be many other nuclear experts like Khan around the world who may be consulting secretly for some other ambitious nations.
UN’s Resolution 1540
Following the arrest of Khan, a UN Security Council Resolution 1540 was passed in 2004 to further emphasize the importance of non-proliferation Treaty. That Resolution was expected to encourage countries like Pakistan and Malaysia to better control activities related to weapons of mass destruction within their borders and to prevent improper exports. The effectiveness of that new element of the non-proliferation “regime” however remains uncertain even till date.
Original Treaty
The original treaty which is still in force has five nuclear weapon state members and 187 non-nuclear weapon state members. India, Israel, and Pakistan never joined the treaty, thereby reserving the legal right to develop nuclear weapons. North Korea became a party to the treaty in 1985 but renounced it in 2003, exercising its rights under the treaty’s withdrawal provisions. North Korea’s action highlighted one of the treaty’s major limitations.
Concern
The problem concerning terrorism here is neither about the signing or breaching treaties per se nor about armament reduction. It is rather about some nations’ determination to balance power with rivals. This was the factor that led to the invention of atomic bomb by the US in the first instance. And this factor has now advanced into balance of terror not only among nations but more between those perceived as oppressors and the non-state groups who feel oppressed as the knowledge of developing nuclear weapons keeps spreading.
There is hardly any morality in trying to prevent some nations from developing nuclear or atomic weapons when that is the only thing that qualifies some so-called super powers to exercise self-acclaimed veto power as a means of bullying on other nations. Is it not a norm that a caller for equity must come with clean hands? To abide by this norm and follow the path of morality, the nuclear nations that are now haunting others against proliferation should also disarm if peace must reign in the contemporary world. Nuclear monopoly is an evidence of imperialism prompting rebellion and terrorism around the world today.
Policing Nuclear Proliferation
Policing nuclear proliferation as is now the case by the Super Powers can never ventilate a peaceful atmosphere for the world. It will rather aggravate the existing conflict situation. Proliferation is only possible with the existence of a substance that can be proliferated. And, the only means of stemming terrorism around the world is for those who manufacture and are in possession of destructive weapons to stop their activities along that line. The alternative is to liberalize development of nuclear weapons and let any capable nation possess them without fear of sanction. After all, there is no guarantee that the so-called five super powers campaigning against nuclear proliferation today cannot use or sell its technology to certain favourites nations tomorrow if compelled by what they may call necessity.
The fact that the US and Russia on the one hand, and India and Pakistan on the other, have been unable to use nuclear weapons against one another despite their open mutual hostilities and tight diplomatic scrutiny is simply because they all possess such weapons.
Terrorism and Militancy
Terrorism often begins with ordinary militancy. But when the threat of state power is intensified against rebels, the tendency is for an all out violence to become the necessary weapon with which to counter state terrorism. Thus, to those called terrorists, violent activities are only a counter terrorism measure available for checking state oppression. The case of the South/South of Nigeria during Obasanjo regime was a good example of that.
America’s Bully on Nigeria
If Nigeria were a nuclear nation, the US would not have listed her as a nation under terrorism watch on the account of an isolated case of attempted terrorism by one single Nigerian called Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab. After all, an American citizen, Timothy McVeigh, committed a by far more devastating act of terrorism in the US City of Oklahoma on April 19, 1995 killing 168 people at once and the US did not, as a result, list herself as a nation under terrorism watch. The worst that happened to McVeigh was a court trial that earned him a death sentence in 2001. And since the case of Mutallab had been charged to a court of law since December 25, 2009, why has Nigeria’s name not been removed from that list? The truth is that the US only uses the self-imposed power to witch-hunt potentially great nations of the world under one excuse or the other to prevent those countries from becoming future rivals. Such a unilateral and extra judicial decision of punishing a whole country of about 170 million people for the misdemeanour of a single citizen can only further provoke terrorism inadvertently. It can never curb it.
Curbing Terrorism
From the foregoing, it seems the most effective way of curbing terrorism to adopt a policy of reasonable dialogue which the UN should moderate with sincerity and self-dignity. This can only become possible if the notion of super and veto powers is obliterated or de-emphasized at least to enable concerned parties dialogue conditions to be nutrally lay down by the UN. The lopsidedness created by the super power syndrome has turned the whole world into one massive animal farm in which all animals are supposed to be equal but some are claiming to be more equal than the others. This was the kind of situation which forced some former colonies of imperial powers, including the US, to rebel against their colonizers in various ways, in order to become independent.
Agression
One can imagine what could have happened if other super powers like Russia and China were to be as aggressively belligerent as the US and Britain. Arrogance of power is a major toga propelling terrorism in the various parts of the world today. And, this must be shed if terrorism must be sincerely repelled. Terrorism has become such a massive monster that no single country or click of power mongers can confront without the cooperation of all other countries. And such cooperation must be on the terms of those other countries and not on master/servant terms as reliability on the use of weapons alone to curb terrorism has proved to be a failure.
Internal Terrorism
As for internal terrorism which is far more dangerous than the external one, only good governance can effectively chexkmate it. For instance in a country like Nigeria where the wind of multifarious terrorism is blowing forcefully and incessantly from the rulers towards the ruled especially in terms of economy and corruption, how can individual or group terrorism be prevented? Here is a country naturally endowed with all needed human and material resources but all of which have been turned into a thorny noose, in the hands of the so-called rulers, with which to hang the ruled. If after 50 years of independence, the self-styled giant of Africa is still wallowing in abject poverty in virtually all fields of human endeavour, despite the enormous resources at her disposal, what further evidence does one need to acknowledge such a country as a fertile ground for terrorism?
With trillions of Naira accruing to our treasury annually for almost two decades in the fourth republic, all we can show for it is global notoriety earned from endemic corruption. No national airline, no shipping line, no rail system, no pliable roads, no waterways, no electricity, no drinkable water, no industries, no jobs for millions of able bodied youths, no standard hospitals, or befitting schools or Universities of worth, no edible and satisfactory foods and even some times, no fuel in an OPEC member country. Yet, citizens are told, to roll out the drum in celebration of independence anniversary every October. The question here is: besides squandering the scarce resources, what are we realy celebrating? Is it the perpetual darkness forcing Nigeria to become the worst environmental pollutant in the world through the use of power generators, or a big army of idle hands that has become a time bomb or a ridiculous and unbridled election rigging that has turned our country into a laughing stock in the comity of nations or the onetime self-deceptive REBRANDING SLOGAN devised to further cajole the world into believing that Nigerian government was taking a positive step or an assembly of TOKUNBO HUMAN CORPSES coming from various hospitals around the world because we are incompetent to establish befitting hospitals of our own or a conglomerate of OKADA motorbikes that has become a frightening spectre on our roads haunting our men and women blood and bones or the array of advertisements and sale of foreign visas to our own youthful citizens to enable them migrate from this ‘HELL’ of a country? As a people, we are terrorised not just by our government policies and insincerity physically and psychologically.
At over 50 years of independence, is Nigeria qualified to be called a country or one big jungle where all hunting spree is the order of the day? If a spade must be called a spade, Nigeria is not qualified to talk about checking terrorism because ours is a country where the egg of terrorism had long been gallantly laid, by our government, the hatching of which is just manifesting now. If two generations of Nigerians, since independence over 50 years ago, have not seen any reason why this country claims to be an OPEC member, then there is a heavy cloud in the horizon, will bring a rain of hope?
Good Governance
In any country, internal terrorism is effectively stemmed by good governance and not by sheer propaganda either in the name of ‘REBRANDING’ or empty promises while the looting of the national treasury is preferred to reorientation with self-discipline. No nation can eat her cake and still have it. God save Nigeria.
The second segment of this article may soon be published in this column if necessary.