The Nation Newspaper

Tag: good governance

  • TUC urges govt on welfare, good governance

    TUC urges govt on welfare, good governance

    The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has drawn government’s attention to some issues plaguing employer and employee relationship to ensure a friendly working environment this year.

    The President of the Union, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, drew the government’s attention to politicians’ impunity and the mismanagement of the fortunes of the oil and gas sector, adding that the way  politicians go about their politicking is bad.

    His words: “What we could read on the wall can best be described as ‘I must get there no matter whose ox is gored’, which is an aberration. They use power and money to win the people to their side because they lack the required ideas to transform the country. What is predominant today is use of state’s coercive power; especially the police and resort to use of touts and idle youths to molest political opponents and journalists. In the 1970s, we had political parties with manifestoes. The Awos, Ziks and Tafawa Balewas of this world chronicled what they planned to do and how they planned to achieve them. But what do we have today? We are wiser now.”

    On the recent drop in the price of crude oil, he said following the unexpected drop in the prices of crude, government is planning to employ some austerity measures to cushion the effect on the economy. He called on the government to make utmost use of the excess dollar by diversifying the economy.

    He said: “Unfortunately, our politicians are only interested in rushing to Abuja for monthly allocation. Government of allocation is certainly not our idea of social contract. Yes, our economy has just been rated the biggest in Africa. It would have been laudable if it had a positive effect on the lives of the average Nigerian and the industrial environment. How do we agree with that when in practical terms the lending rates, cost of living and doing business are unreasonably high?”

    The unionist added that the hasty and deliberate devaluation of the naira, which has also brought untold hardship to the real sector and all other facets of the economy, has to be addressed as congress will not tolerate cases of job losses arising from government’s insensitivity. He said it has become pertinent to warn against such move now to avoid worsening the spate of insecurity in the country, which was occasioned by the gross mismanagement of the economy.

    “No wonder, unemployment figures remain high, unimaginable crime rates, poverty, epileptic energy sector and inexplicable high tariffs have become our lot. And it is yet a tragedy of national proportion that as parents we sleep in the comfort of our homes when the over 250 Chibok girls and the series of other kidnapped youths are nowhere to be found,” he added.

    Kaigama expressed concern that government has refused to reduce the prices of petroleum products even though the price of crude has collapsed in the international market, which was the reason given when it wanted to increase the price of fuel in 2012.  He urged government to direct the appropriate agency to immediately adjust prices of petroleum products as it will ameliorate the suffering of the  masses.

    On the content policy, he praised the government’s initiative. He, however, said since the policy came into place in 2010, there has been no yardstick to measure the progress made. “We have observed that the entrepreneurs that are being empowered are compromising employment standards and flagrantly breaching workplace rights and decent work principles with intimidation and myriads of victimisation.

    “Finally, we wish to inform politicians that the labour movement is not oblivious of the fact that we are in an election year. Meanwhile, while we make case for free and fair elections, we also want politicians to know that we, the workers and masses, are going to do the voting and that we are going to ensure that our votes count,” Kaigama said.

  • Lawmakers and good governance

    SIR: After much pressure and criticisms from virtually all quarters, Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio has finally sent a bill to the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, requesting that the controversial Pension Act revert to status quo ante. The u-turn by the governor is nothing but a serious indictment on the legislators and the legislature as an institution.

    The bill, which was initially sent to the state House of Assembly, was hurriedly and unprofessionally passed despite public outcry that greeted it. Titled: “Akwa Ibom State Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Act, 2014”, it provides that the governor and his wife should access annual medical services at a sum not exceeding N100 million or an equivalent of $600,000 and for the deputy governor and his/her spouse N30 million or an equivalent of $200,000. While the governor gets a mansion, the deputy gets an accommodation allowance of 300 per cent of his/her annual basic salary, among other bogus provisions.

    The excuse given by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Sam Ikon that “the bill seeks ways to motivate the governors and deputy governors to stay focused and not loot public funds, bearing in mind that a provision has been made for them to still access a comfortable life after many years of selfless service” is unconvincing. No matter how rich a person is, he/she could still be corrupt if he/she chooses to, because those accused of graft cannot be said to be poor.

    Approving such unjustifiable and colossal sums of money for a few persons from the public purse is not only unfair but a destructive path to depleting the state’s finances. I am sure that if the legislators had subjected the Pension Bill to a thorough debate during the public hearing process, it would have been logically dissected and most likely, dumped. This was never allowed.

    Over the years, the astronomical increase in the remunerations of political office holders has been a subject of concern with the loud call for a drastic cut in such jumbo package amid the country’s fragile economy. Apart from fat salaries, all sorts of allowances are packaged for the political class under the guise of severance allowance. It is this lucrative nature of Nigerian politics that encourages the do-or-die mentality. ThAs rich as the United States of America coupled with the fact that its constitution makes room for its President to enjoy life pension, Americans are beginning to complain of the huge cost of implementing such welfare provision in the midst of many, pressing national demands. For us, we do not seem to be too keen in copying what is good from other nations like America that we fashioned our federal constitution after.

    We should collectively appreciate that the essence of democracy would be defeated if our law makers continue to act like lawbreakers. As the arm of government that defines democratic rule, intense searchlights – which are mostly beamed on the executive, and occasionally on the judiciary – should be redirected at the legislature.  It is due to these unpleasant complaints that have spurred the renewed call that the country should adopt part-time and unicameral legislature. Our parliament should sit-up and really be the hallowed chamber that is truly independent of the tempting, over-bearing and manipulative influence of the executive.

     

    • Adewale Kupoluyi

    Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta

  • Also bring back good governance

    The monumental national tragedy and humiliation, arising from the kidnap of over 200 teenage girls from Government Girls Secoundary School, Chibok, in Borno State, merely exposed to the international community, the daily humiliation associated with being a Nigerian, living in Nigeria. While the trauma being experienced by the girls, the parents and relations of the abducted girls and indeed well meaning Nigerian deserve all the empathy, it must be borne in mind that national tragedies are daily occurrence in our country. No doubt, the thought of what could be happening to the young girls in the hands of the bandit group, known as Boko Haram, can turn any parent into a mental wreck.

    Regrettably, the kidnap saga is attenuated by the helplessness of the ordinary Nigerians in the face of gross ineptitude, by those who have foisted themselves on us, as our leaders. While we demonstrate, rail and deservedly worry ourselves to death, over this tragedy, the greater unfolding dilemma called governance in our country, is trudging on as if the Chibok tragedy, was a one-off stuff. It is not; as worse things have happened, and many more will likely happen, unless we all forcefully insist on good governance. The idea here is not to underestimate this national tragedy, but merely to contextualize it. Take for instance the daily streaming of thousands, if not millions of our young girls into forced prostitution, at home or abroad; or the teenage-mothers and their baby factories, evoking a humiliating moral degeneracy and an evil effort to eke out a living.

    Also factor in the prostituting wives and other women, who in desperate efforts to support their economically humiliated husbands, or other relations, engage in the humiliating and hurting hawking of their biological wares. Of course their despondent and unemployed relations are other victims of the political and economic vampires who bestrode our national space like the Boko Harams in the Sabisa forest. Also factor into this group, the young teenagers, inhumanly forced into early marriages, on one self-serving dogma or another, and who inevitably trudge ahead in their miserable lives to become virgina vestiticular fisticular (vvf) patients. Imagine their ultimate humiliation when they are alienated by the same self-serving parents and relations who in the first instance forced them into early marriages or teenage prostitution.

    ‘The Bring Back Our Girls Alive Now’ campaign is a worthy cause, but our dear country as currently run, is a cul-de-sac, and so needs far greater concentration of local and world attention and pressure, for her to make genuine progress, as a modern society. As eruditely argued by Tatalo Alamu in his column last Sunday, titled, Sambisa and Other Forests; this national tragedy is a mere reflection of a deeper malaise, facing our country. One such other urgent national need as we insist that the girls are safely brought home now; is for those in positions of authority at the federal, state and local councils, to Bring Back Good Governance.

    The way to go is to enforce accountability of our nation’s human and material resources, as well as the electoral process. It is a ringing shame that Nigeria dose not know the actual size of her population, not to talk of having a modern data of all the occupants of her national space. The result is that when crimes are committed against our country, whether a lowly one, such as burglary or a horrendous one such as mass murder or kidnapping, the modern forensic technology, which could have pinned down the culprits with certainty, is hampered by lack of a national data. So, as we mourn the grievous and devious acts of modern criminality, we as nation must urgently, prepare our selves, with modern technical know-how, to confront these challenges. If we are serious, then the next national census, must apply the best technology we can afford, to capture an efficient and effective data, of our nationals.

    Another urgent national need is for accountability of our material resources. As should be clear to all genuine patriots, the national resources can no longer sustain the bare faced stealing and criminality of those occupying positions of public power. Those who like to live like Arabian sheiks of oil rich kingdoms, on our bare back bones, must come to terms with our national emergencies. Even while pursuing fiscal federalism and the attendant competition it will hopefully engender, the resources of our country in the custody of public officials must be applied to enhance good governance. When we tell idiotic tales of missing billions of dollars and naira, we are not only advertising criminality as a national ethos, we are indeed, mismanaging the badly needed resources to help our country prepare for the challenges of a modern society. If we want to get the required national security architecture ready for the challenges we face, then those who have been helping themselves with our common resources must stop now.

    Of course to get genuine persons into positions of authority to effect the needed changes, our elections must be free, fair and credible. Anything short of that is a clear and manifest invitation of anarchy. So, those who steal elections are also stealing our lives and are the worst brigands. Here we are talking of the lives of millions who will perish from the crisis that arise from manipulation of election. To help stem another round of national crisis, shame and international odium, the forthcoming national elections must be well planned and executed. The officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission must bear in mind that their actions and inactions could cost millions of lives and properties. As we match to bring back our girls, let us also work to bring back good governance, to our country.

  • Charting a course for good governance

    Charting a course for good governance

    For two days, student-writers across the country gathered at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State for the second International Campus Journalists Conference (ICJC) hosted by the OAU chapter of the Association of Campus Journalists (ACJ). OLUWAFEMI OGUNJOBI (400-Level Language Arts) and TOSIN ALAWODE (300-Level English Education) report.

    Do campus writers have a role to play in promoting good governance and national growth? This was the kernel of the discourse at the just-concluded two-day national conference organised by the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) chapter of the Association of Campus Journalists (ACJ).

    To Dapo Olorunyomi, editor of Premium Times, an online news medium, citizens would only enjoy good governance if journalists, whether on campus or in the larger society, hold public office holders accountable for their deeds.

    He said journalists were the torch bearers of truth, who must always be on the side of the masses.

    He said: “There are only two forces that can carry light to every corner of the globe: the sun and the media. This is why it is the central responsibility of a journalist to uphold accountability and openness when reporting issues of governance and national growth.”

    To promote good governance and hold public officers accountable, Olorunyomi said journalists must beam their searchlight on corruption in public and private offices, violation of human rights by security agencies and incompetency of policy regulators.

    The Editor-in-Chief of the Nigerian Tribune, Edward Dickson, said the obligation of the media was to promote a free society. “Politics and media have a common interest,” Dickson said, noting that to achieve a society where citizens would enjoy good governance, the media must play a watchdog role and make politicians to work for the people who voted them into office.

    Dickson, represented by Mr Sulaiman Olanrewaju, Nigerian Tribune’s Feature Editor, described a newspaper house as a public organisation, saying it is regrettable that commercialisation of the media has affected its role and responsibility to the people. He said whatever the interest of a newspaper’s owner may be, the content and its mission should not be skewed against the people.

    Taking the audience through the Foundations of a free society, Adedayo Thomas, the Director of Outreach of Afrincanliberty.org, said freedom was the foundation on which the press operates, stressing that the press may lose its freedom if media practitioners failed to promote a free society. He said a regulated freedom would inhibit the national growth.

    His words:“The basis of good governance has to do with policy and that is why there should be limited power exercised by the government on economic issues.”

    CAMPUSLIFE coordinator Wale Ajetunmobi urged the students to bring the ethics of journalism to bear on their duty. He said: “Journalism empowers people to get accurate information from people in authority to make society a better place.”

    Ajetunmobi told the campus writers to limit their activities to the confines of their schools and free their campuses from vices that may cause loss of lives and disrupt the academic calendar.

    Olubunmi Afuye, a producer at Orange FM in Akure, the Ondo State capital, said it was the responsibility of the media to bridge the gap between the government and the people.

    He said: “The media is not expected to be supportive in its relationship with government officials. As members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm, journalists must be independent and unbiased. The pen is the most powerful weapon politicians fear; this is why, as a journalist, you must be responsible and accurate in your reports.”

    Earlier, the OAU Vice-Chancellor, Prof Bamitale Omole, represented by the Director of Institute of Cultural Studies, Prof Gbemisola Adeoti, said he was delighted that the youths came together to champion good governance. He said he had no doubt that the conference would afford the youngsters the opportunity to find answers to issues affecting their common interest.

    He said: “Journalism is an institution developed by man over the ages to ensure human wellbeing, social stability, political emancipation and preservation of people’s mores and ethos. However, if our nation will continue to be relevant in the global arena, journalists, the bearers of light in the dark tunnels, must be up and doing. They should not succumb to all pressures pointing in the direction of silence.”

    The ACJ president, Alex Ojekunle, a 400-Level Public Administration student, noted that the vision of the conference was to create a platform for student-writers across campuses to interact and chart a course for the realisation of national objectives. He said the conference was to unify members and serve as a platform for learning and honing their skills.

    The conference, held in the expansive Oduduwa Hall and OAU Conference Centre, was attended by student-writers from Usmanu Danfodiyo University in Sokoto (UDUS), University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), University of Ibadan (UI), Ekiti State University (EKSU) and Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), among others.

  • Youths must fight for good governance

    Youths must fight for good governance

    I grew up to hear my parents say “Nigeria of then is better than what we have today”. If the country could be better in a period when there was relatively little education, it is obvious that today’s country is worse. Don’t call me a prophet of doom.

    It was Abraham Lincoln, former president of the United States, that defined democracy as government of the people, by the people and for the people. But this is not the case in Nigeria. The government belongs to a few people, by their family members and cronies, and for their generations to come.

    At the 2006 All Africa Student Union (AASU) event held in Pretoria, South Africa, President Goodluck Jonathan, who was then the governor of Bayelsa State, spoke of empty promises and grandstood before the mammoth crowd of students.

    Jonathan said he was always happy addressing youths, especially students because “they are change agents for the future.”

    He also added that he urged the youths, students and future generations to be proud of their country. But what would make us proud in the face of acute poverty, multi-billion naira fraud in official circles and massive corruption under the watch of the Jonathan government?

    How could one describe a government that shut down the universities for almost six months because it could not see logic in Academic Staff Union of Universities’ (ASUU’s) demand to improve infrastructure and encourage quality research? Yet, a minister deemed it fit to insult our sensibility by purchasing bullet-proof BMW cars for N255 million.

    Now every politician hailed the late Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela as icon. But how many mansion did the late Madiba build from the resources of South Africa?

    The battle for democratisation of Nigeria has been won but how to manage the victory for the greater benefit of the people is the challenge before us. It is important for us to win this war. A generation in Nigeria fought for our independence from colonial rule; another generation made efforts to end military rule. Our generation must strive to fight for good governance.

    We are faced with the war of bad economy, insecurity, corruption, division and gross injustice. The victory over these wars will give meaning to our democracy. Unless these wars are fought with same tenacity of purpose and won, our nation will never achieve the level of greatness it desires.

    The world remembers Mandela today because of the good foundation he laid for the development of post-apartheid South Africa. He fought oppression to give his people freedom; he was fired by an uncommon courage and sense of love for Africa and its people. Mandela left legacies that would continue to be cherished by all black people.

    We need to start working towards the realization of the dreams of African founding fathers like Mandela, while also dreaming new dreams to advance societal progress. Giving expression to these dreams requires a continuous dose of patriotism, selflessness, determination and courage to trudge on against all odds because it is often said that where there is no sweet dream, there is bound to be nightmare, where there is no attitude, there won’t be Latitude, where ther is no progression, there will be depression and where there is no vision, the people perish, as the Holy Bible warns.

    Now, corruption has become part of our national life. Our elections are like wars because we refuse to choose qualified people who will not appropriate public funds for personal aggrandisement. Corrupt people do not make good leaders. Only courageous and selfless people can bring change to a society.

    Everybody lauds democarcy but we must realise the fact that democracy alone cannot improve the welfare of the people. Only good governance can.

    •Adam, NDII Mass Comm., IBADAN POLY.

  • Ekiti State and good governance

    Once upon a time, the significance of politics by Ekiti indigenes was commitment. Loyalty to leadership was indubitable. In the days of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Ekiti people were more devoted to him than even his own Ijebu people. This was because in Ekiti foundation, people were consistent and hardly waver – such that once they say ‘yes’, it remains so, and when they declare ‘no’, so shall it also be. This was why those who could not conform were seeing reliable Ekiti people as adamant and pig-headed.

    Nigeria that was once on the pathway of greatness is today a moribund nation basically because of poor leadership and governance. Good governance, of course, depends on the extent to which government is perceived and accepted as permissible, committed to improving public welfare, responsive to the needs of its citizens, deliver public services and create an enabling policy environment for productive activities.

    Therefore, to consider governance as good, there must be the practicality in which power is exercised in managing public economic and social resources for development. Being the use of political authority and exercise of control over a society, and the management of its resources for socio-economic development, it entails that governance has to do with sound management of public resources of which public fund is a crucial component. This therefore involves the use of political authority to promote and enhance societal values – economic as well as non-economic – that are sought by the people. It is the processes whereby values in society, at different levels, are realized.

    Rapid and massive infrastructural development in Ekiti State within three years in office as Governor is evident of Dr. Kayode Fayemi’s faithfulness and commitment to his 8-point agenda. It has gone beyond making promises mere campaign issues or his performance as dance to the gallery of popularity, but more as a passion for true transformation of the state.

    Today, good governance in Ekiti State is transparent and accountable. It is also proving effective and equitable. When Dr. Fayemi was being sworn in as Governor, he made some pledges that other leaders in the country too could make but would not struggle to actualize. In his inaugural speech, he promised an agenda that would improve infrastructure, mordernise agriculture, promote qualitative education towards the development of functional human capital, provide free health and social security to the disadvantaged sector of the state, ensure industrial development, tourism and promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

    For the state with low income and an inherited debt of about N42 billion and many desolate projects, it was as if it was another talk for the sake of talk. Ekiti State was then running on a measly N109 million Internally Generated Revenue and a paltry N2.5 billion monthly federal allocation out of which about N2 billion was expended on salaries and allowances. It was only a committed innovative mind backed up by God that could work to make what seems impossible to become practicable.

    What has been proven today is that good governance would ever lead to higher value. Now, Ekiti has in veracity become a ‘Land of Honour’ rather than the old appellation as ‘Fountain of Knowledge’ of a state where education had degenerated. Beyond politicization, virtually all projects of the present administration are public-based in targeted communities.

    To ensure good governance in the kind of society we are, the prime prerequisite is the minimization of corruption. Fayemi blocked fake workers upon which the state was loosing millions of naira on monthly basis to the personal pockets of few thieving public servants. Of course, the fraudsters had to engender demeaning the governor’s steps that are in favour of the masses. This is why they are the cluster finding it thorny to appreciate the positive impact of the administration’s efforts on the communities and the people rather than on few individuals pocketing public funds. Ekiti people are being manipulated to show love for money than on development of the state.

    In August while on leave, I went home and moved round several local government areas the same way I did early last year in my wife’s Edo State after which I reported in this column the reality of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s undeniable impressive labour. What I saw in my state after three years of governance was more than what is being publicized: incontestable high level performance of the agenda of Governor Fayemi.

    I discovered that the agricultural sector which was once the potency of the state is being revived, with the Ekiti being turned to the nation’s food basket. I understand that cassava cultivated in the state now has the highest yield in the country. I learnt that as support for farmers, the government is purchasing their yields and assisting in selling the products. Vegetables of all sorts are now being pushed to versatile Lagos market from Ekiti along what was conceded at the South-West Regional Integration Expo that I managed for my organization in Osogbo early this year.

    In order that farming would not just be for farming sake, College of Technical and Commercial Agriculture was being established in Isan Ekiti so that those who pass through it might be set up to the technicalities of doing commercial agriculture. Already, the enterprising Youth Commercial Agriculture Development Programme (Y-CAD) is stimulating the young generation to go back to farming. It is empowering them with input, incentives and loans to start off. Youths in the state are now being integrated into commercial agriculture in the rejuvenated farm settlements in Orin, Igede-Ile Ona, Efon-Alaaye, Ikoro and Erifun in the state capital.

    If agriculture is being evidently revitalized in Ekiti, infrastructural development is so visible in transforming the state. Essential promises have been fulfilled in all the local governments with virtually every town having at least a project either implemented or on-going.

    It was stimulating passing through quality urban and rural roads in all local governments under the five-kilometre road-per-local-government scheme. Altogether, I learnt that over 900 kilometres of federal, state and local government roads have either been rehabilitated or constructed. Talk of metropolitan transformation, Ado-Ekiti has become an admirable state capital, day and night. To boost electricity supply, transformers have been installed in many communities, including my Aramoko town. Several places which hitherto never had electricity are being connected to the national grid.

    There have been provisions of pipe-borne water with five mini-water treatment plants commissioned while laying of new pipes to replace the old ones across the state is almost completed.  Provisionally, 167 modern water fetching points called Eyiyato Fetching Points have been constructed in various communities across the 16 LGAs to upgrade privation caused by water shortage which Ayo Fayose played on to get to power. Today, Fayemi administration’s solution has amplified the ranking of the state as one of the best two in the water sector.

    Education reformation with new structures and computers for students has touched the sector such that students in the remotest village are with laptops. The last WAEC result was evident of progress. The Samsung Award for Fayemi as the Best Governor in Africa that has invested in Education is a further testimony to the attention he has paid to that vital sector. The London Economist magazine’s report about governance in Ekiti State confirmed that “better governance is creeping beyond the metropolis.”

    Another pioneering idea which has motivated the State of Osun is that Ekiti elders now receive N5,000 monthly stipends, while the governor’s wife also takes care of them through her Food Bank Programme where they are served cooked food in special kitchens across the state. The supportive wife has also brought relief to many mothers of triplets through her Multiple Birth Trust Fund where financial assistance and baby items are given to them and she also give financial assistance to women across the state via the gender empowerment programme.

    Fayemi’s reaffirmation of his vision at the inauguration of Ikogosi Warm and Cold Spring Resort last week was that Ekiti would become a foremost tourist destination, not just in Nigeria, but in Africa. I was in Ikogosi spring and it has become classy international tourist centre on all fronts. Today, it is encouraging that a hitherto wasted asset is now being listed as one of the seven natural wonders in Nigeria.

    Fayemi is enhancing the beauty of the state and restoring a new life into all the abandoned assets. Ire Burnt Brick Factory is back to life. To lessen the burden of housing on the people, he has now laid the foundation of the 1,000-unit Eyiyato Housing Estate in Ado-Ekiti, of which 300 of the housing units will be completed before this year closes. There is also a plan to build 5,000 low cost housing units across the three senatorial districts in the next one year. Many more viable performances as reward of good governance. Let the people continue to feel the impact of good vision, responsible governance and able leadership.

    For Ekiti to continue to move forward, 2014 is coming as an opportunity for the indigenes to reveal themselves as people in the true land of honour. If indeed promises are being fulfilled, there is hardly anything anyone can promise to do that must be contrary to the ongoing progress of the state. Restored Ekiti State with miniature federal allocation resources can be a developmental model to other states in this declining nation. This is why if the good work must continue, its people cannot afford to go for self-centered and covetous leaders who just want to be in power at all costs for the sake of it.

  • Wars without end… Victims without end…

    Nothing succeeds like good governance, fairness and justice. A good mixture of those elements can give us a world without wars

    What is with men and wars, I’ll never know, but records show that over ninety per cent of wars in this world have been initiated and executed by men. No, no, I am not starting an argument, just stating a fact. Just think, in the lifetime of any given male, the chances that he would initiate or help to execute a war is close to fifty per cent. Imagine that! I know that when they were little, my children initiated many wars against each other, mostly over nothing, but that doesn’t even count. The fighting gene nevertheless appears to run true and deep in all men.

    Most worrisome, however, is the fact that somehow, the fighting genes running loose in men are now being transfused into women and other things. Women, knowing no better and no different, proudly don the togas of war, supposedly for love and country and head out, leaving behind tearful babies, crying children and baffled husbands. Tch, tch. If those women only knew the truth – that they have been infected by the blood running in men’s veins – they would know better where to direct their heaving chests of indignation. All together, mankind has become like a couple of pigeons which seems to do nothing but flap their wings in real antagonism towards each other three mornings a week behind my fence. What the bone of contention is exactly, no one can tell, but all we seem to get from them are their emotions all flapped up.

    Actually, nothing excuses mankind’s behaviour which seems to stem from the belief that only the fisticuffs can settle any and all matters. This is why we now have community, civil, international, cyber, psychological and, most worrisome of all, domestic wars. And with the match of science, those simple fisticuffs have been translated into the rat-ta-tat-at-tat of machine guns or the booms of cannons aimed at other human beings just like them. I don’t know about you but anytime I have stumbled across TV programmes depicting war scenes, I have been struck by one question: to what purpose?

    Just recently, I read the story of a soldier who was shot at the war front but instead of falling and dying quickly, he got caught on the barbed wire that separated the two sides in the war. The war continued around him however with shots from the guns but now punctuated by his own groans of pain as he slowly bled. His own friends could not come to his rescue for fear of being hit. Finally, a soldier from the side which had hit him in the first place could stand the groans no longer so he put down his gun and ran towards the dying man. Both sides, seeming to realise what he was going to do, ceased firing at each other and watched him in disbelief as he gently disentangled the wounded man and carried him across to the enemy line and gave him to his friends. As he turned to go back to his side of the war, he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was the commanding officer of the enemy troop who removed a bravery medal from his own uniform and pinned it on the rescuer and saluted. Both sides then waited for him to run back to his side before they resumed their insane game.

    Today, the world remembers the millions and millions of victims of the World War 2 Holocaust but we are expanding it here to include all victims of the insane thing called war all over the world. Sources say that presently, there are one hundred and forty-six wars being fought and from these, over one thousand people are dying yearly. This gives us a very frightening picture indeed considering that it shows a considerable build-up of victims of war who are mostly women, children and the aged. The worst part is that these victims, and the wounded and dead soldiers, have no clear understanding of what caused the war in the first place.

    So, who declares a war and why? As a member of the human race, and a national of a country located somewhere on this planet, I think I have the right to know. Who the deuce feels he is obliged to declare a war where he does not often go to fight but only the young and able-bodied men (and now women) are obliged to go and be killed? I ask this because our lives, planet, children, and whether or not we wake up tomorrow depend on the answer. I believe that, and you can check this out, whoever declares a war must have a very little brain indeed, even tinier than mine, and he would be the kind of person that cannot even get along with his neighbour. Just watch out, next time someone declares a war around you, first interview his neighbour.

    There is a line that says that ‘Love has no religion, only God’. I don’t know exactly what that means but I can extrapolate that humans can choose the Christian, Muslim, Animist, Atheist, or the Love religion. Clearly, most people have not been choosing the Love religion because all wars in history have been started by someone from the other religions. This is quite different from the poster that reads ‘Make Love, not War.’ Again, I don’t know what that means either but I would guess that it still borders on what choices we make.

    I honestly don’t know what war-mongers are really after: plunder, fame or power. Whatever it is, I think we should all accept right now that none of that stays if built on the sacrificed blood of innocent men and women. One can get better plunder by raiding a rat’s hide-out. They are the only creatures I know who gather what they don’t need. Fame can come from a variety of other activities. Try calling the press to witness as you jump down from a ten-story building unto a bed of hot coals and sharp nails. I tell you, you will be toasted at every gathering in the country for years without end. And power? Why, have you tried to imagine a king testing his power by standing without his aides in the path of a herd of rampaging elephants? Again, should that king survive, he will be toasted for ever as a very powerful man indeed. That takes me to a second line I found: ‘We should realise that we have not been put here to rule the world – God does’. Anyone who feels compelled to test that theory is free to because my third line has the answer for them: ‘Those who thought they did had to leave it’.

    Most people agree that wars have never solved any problem; they are only indulgences for old men looking for their manhood. They do not consider that wars without end only create victims without end. They also do not consider that the only things that wars leave behind are victims who do not even understand why they are being called on to be victims. They are helpless against the insatiate appetites of men to seek and create drama everywhere. This column commiserates with all victims of war today; they are the ones who have to deal with, and pick up pieces of lives shattered by, the insanity of war.

    The long and short of it is that wars are not good; let us stop them. Only God himself can put out the flame of domestic wars, but we can try our best with the rest. Those do nothing but point to the failure of human intelligence. Nothing succeeds as much as good governance, fairness and justice. A good mixture of those elements can give us a world without wars, Amen.

     

    – This piece was first published on 27 January, 2013