HIS EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN GCFR, COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA VICE PRESIDENT, ARC MOHAMMED NAMADI SAMBO GCON, SENATOR ANYIM PIUS ANYIM, SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE FEDERATION THE MINISTER OF FCT; SEN. BALA MOHAMMED. THE CHAIRMAN OF THIS OCCASION HIS ROYAL HIGHNESSES SPECIAL GUESTS GNPN FAMILY, GENTLEMEN OF THE PRESS The Absence of Peace in a Growing Society Peace, they say is priceless. One can hardly talk about peace without talking about war for the absence of war simply, is peace. For any society to grow healthily and develop optimally, such a society must have a measure of peace politically, socially and otherwise. There is no economy all over the world, that thrive in the absence of peace hence the absence of peace in any growing society ultimately leads to the impoverishment of the citizenry; unemployment, destruction of lives and property to mention but a few. Peace advances the economic development of a society by fostering conditions that are conducive to business and investment. At the same time, business can play a decisive role in building and strengthening peace through job and wealth creation. Peace eludes societies for various reasons. There are wars between countries or nations and within the nation. The latter is generally known as civil war and can occur as a result of differences based on race, religion, socio-economic dissatisfaction among others. Whether wars are waged between countries (interstate) or inside the country between different sections of the communities, the effects are very damaging. According to experts, the main reasons or factors that contribute to wars are human greed for wealth and intolerance towards one another. Many world leaders in fact believe that the main reason America invaded Iraq was for its oil wealth. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians as well as American and Iraqi soldiers have been killed, injured or maimed. During the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s, there were more than 1 million casualty figures with millions injured. The attack on the American World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001 killed close to three thousand people and the subsequent reprisal on Afghanistan by American forces killed thousands of people in that country. World War 1 and World War 11 combined have claimed millions of lives and in the African continent, tribal wars and regional wars continue to occur. The civil war between the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda claimed more than 3 million lives and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 3 million people have died due to conflicts between warlords. Many countries especially in Africa are still embroiled in tragic wars. The effects of war are both physical and psychological. Human societies are deeply affected by wars as residential areas; public infrastructure, hospitals and the very basis of human existence are destroyed. Malaysia too experienced war when it was once occupied by the Japanese and people faced many hardships and challenges to meet their basic needs. The absence of peace brings untold miseries as well as political and economic instability. Peoples lives and daily existence come under threat. It would be difficult to find jobs or carryout normal day-to-day activities in the absence of peace. Populations are displaced and have to constantly move about for security. What is happening in Darfur, Sudan is a dire reflection of the tragedy wars bring. Some are scarred emotionally and physically for life while a vast majority are dead. Back home in Nigeria, we will recall that the last war Nigeria experienced was the Civil War that started July 6 1967 and ended January 15 1970. There is no doubt that even now, the Nigerian economy still has scares from the war. At the end of the war, the south-east of Nigeria had suffered a great blow in every area of survival. Lands and properties were destroyed, starvation and all kinds of diseases came upon the land and the peoples condition was critical. It was a great blow to the Nigerian economy. Currently, it is mention worthy that the activities of Boko Haram which has rendered many homeless, killed and destroyed many lives and properties is a pointer to what it means for a society to exist without peace. I believe that when we look at the economic cost of war, we can then have a quite accurate perception of how incredibly destructive this force can be. It is estimated that the economic cost of a typical civil war in some of the poorest countries in the world can roughly be equivalent to losing two years of economic income, or on average $20 billion of that country’s economy (Collier, 2009). Now, as massive as this sum of money might be for a very poor society, this estimate, however, most likely underestimates the actual cost of war if we take into account the long-term social, economic, environmental and cultural damages made to society. The Democratic Republic of the Congo serves as a sad example where after more than a decade of conflict, the number of estimated victims of the numerous armed conflicts that have ravaged this land round the 5.4 million mark, the great majority of them attributed to civilians killed as a consequence of the spread of diseases, the displacement of people, and the virtual collapse of some of the most basic types of public health service provided by the state (Mealer, 2008). According to Collier’s economic analysis of conflicts worldwide, he estimates that the average length of a civil war is seven years, and he puts its average economic cost at a growth reduction of 2.3 percent per year. What this means is that by the time the conflict is stabilized, there is a high likelihood that the average country would be about 16 percentage points poorer than it would otherwise have been had it not grown at all during that same time span (Collier, 2009). There is no doubt that all well meaning Nigerians and even the present day Government have, in many respects been working towards the betterment of the Nigerian Economy. The absence of peace in this era of growth in the Nigerian economy will be a disaster to the economy. No matter what kind of war, a sectional, civil or national war, the Nigerian economy will cripple and it will take more years to revive it than it took since the first civil war. Oil companies and other investors in Nigeria will have to shut down. The instability of the country will make the economy crumble. The prices of product will go so high; life in the country will become unbearable. Farm crops will be destroyed and survival will be difficult for the common man. Thus, Nigerians and indeed humans must pursue peace at all cost. One sure way we can protect our lives and ensure stability in our country is to practice tolerance and respect for each other; respect for each other’s opinion and belief. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Being a paper delivered at the EXCO inauguration of the Global Peace Network For Peace in Nigeria (GNPN) on Thursday 18th September, 2014 at the International Conference Centre, Abuja
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 19:10:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015