“So it goes. Returning violence for violence multipliers violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”-Martin Luther king Jr
The recent warning of the Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka added to the voices of reasons across the country and beyond, are not issues to be taken lightly. War is not a champagne toast and those who dare to talk about it, may not be prepared for the aftermath of war in its real sense. Regardless, this is a time for sober reflection, call for reasoning, and call for men of good conscience to intervene….before it is too late.
The Challenges are enormous and it requires all hands on deck. The time is also ripe for all and sundry to speak with one voice and stand to be counted. The horizon is not only cloudy but dark and the “cumulus nimbus” is forming like a wild fire in the harmattan season. The drumbeat of war is loud, clear and ominous.
If the genocide in Rwanda was between two brothers of the same faith (Christians) then I wonder what would happen between Christians and Muslims. This will go beyond the frontiers of Nigeria and affect other West African countries like Cameroon, Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana because while Nigeria can accommodate all these countries, they would not be able to accommodate Nigeria. The destruction that will engulf the sub region would be worse than that of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Mr Allen Onyema, the CEO of Air Peace enjoined the youths in the South East to beware of those creating confusion because most of the dignitaries seated at the function will be the first to fly out of the country in case of any commotion in the country.
It’s not too late to retrace our steps, it’s not too late for the rulership and the common citizens to sit, discuss and make a u-turn. One does not need a soothsayer to foretell what the future holds in store for us.
Sectarianism is a form of prejudice, discrimination, or hatred arising from attaching relations of inferiority and superiority to differences between subdivisions within groups…..The ideological underpinnings of atitude and behaviors labeled as sectarian and extraordinarily varied. Such fatalism and violence against each other must be avoided at whatever cost. The conflict may have numerous causes, but the result is violence based on ethnic/religious differences between same compatriots.
“You can’t sit down and people kill your men and just watch them idle. Let the killings stop, let the violence stop, and there’ll be no violence against each other.”-Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
WE SURE NEED TO STAY AWAKE FOR AFRICA. NIGERIA IS BLEEDING AND UNDER SIEGE.
Odusanya is the convener of AFRICA COVENANT RESCUE INITIATIVE ACRI.
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