Although the Peoples Progressive Alliance (PPA) later suffered
monumental political setbacks in the South East orchestrated by the Peoples
Democratic Party [PDP], the fact that the party that was barely one year of
registration could achieve such a political milestone of winning two states in
the 2007 governorship elections, is a testimony of the political sagacity,
acumen and the energetic approach to politics that was brought to bear by the
founder [OUK] and his team.
For some inexplicable reasons, OUK who vied to represent his
people in the Senate during the 2011 election, was manipulated and rigged out
by the political machinery of the ruling People’s Democratic Party which was
bent on producing the winners of all the elective positions to score cheap
political victory in Abia State.
Unperturbed by this profanity that was carefully couched as high
wire conspiracy, this gentle man- OUK has proceeded with his legitimate chain
of business activities which he left to contest the governorship position which
he won by landslide in the 1999 election.
But unlike other political aspirants who would either lose at the
poll or rigged out and completely go into their cocoon or disappear to do their
private business without working to promote peace, democracy and growth of the
nation’s economy, OUK is not one of those who will turn his back on his country
especially during these trying times.
Since losing out to the rigging machinery of the ruling party at
the center and made to face Kangaroo anti-graft trial, OUK has remained a
consistent patriot who is unhappy that his country has slide into anarchy,
lawlessness, and terror-related violence.
Realizing that the only way for evil to triumph is for good men to
do nothing, OUK has severally proffered workable intellectual and pragmatic
panaceas to the challenges of insecurity, poverty and corruption which confront
Nigeria.
His latest intervention is his acceptance to mediate in the
ongoing terror-related killings in the North on the delegation of the Federal
government to dialogue with the dreaded armed Islamic terrorists – Boko Haram.
A self acclaimed commander of the dreaded insurgents had two weeks
ago listed some terms of possible truce with the government of Nigeria which
included the appointment of the former Head of State General Muhammadu Buhari
as the head of the team from the Islamic rebels to engage in peace talk with
the Nigerian government.
In what is seen by many experts as a wise decision, General Buhari
has turned down the offer in the proposed dialogue. He (Buhari) stated that he
does not know any member of the group and that he completely dissociates
himself from the murderous terrorism of the group which has claimed several
thousands of innocent lives in the last few years.
But in a surprise move, the former Abia State governor who grew up
in Maiduguri, Borno State, the hot bed of the ongoing religious insurgency has
offered to be part of the federal government delegation to dialogue with the
insurgents should the Nigerian government accepts to enter into dialogue.
Most Nigerians are opposed to the peace talk proposal.
The Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka believes that there are
no bases legally or morally, for the Nigerian government to dialogue with these
same persons responsible for the killings of thousands of innocent Nigerians.
Soyinka said negotiating with mass murders would not end the cycle
of violence tearing at the country. He also suspects that crooked politicians
had a role in Boko Haram’s early rise.
Soyinka called the prospect of the government engaging in peace
talks with the armed Islamic rebels as ‘abysmal appeasement.’
But the former Abia State governor said his decision to offer his
services to bring about lasting peace was because the majority of Nigerians who
have lost their lives and livelihoods are from the South Eastern part of
Nigeria.
There is the need for peace to return to the volatile Northern
region. I believe that the Federal Government has failed to carry out the
primary constitutional duty of protecting lives and property by abysmally
failing to put to an end the growing armed violent insurgency in Northern
Nigeria.
I believe that any peace regime institutionalized without first
and foremost delivering justice to the thousands of persons whose bread winners
have been killed by the terrorists will not be sustainable and is inherently
unfair, unjust and unconstitutional.
But I do also view the offer of mediation by the former governor
of Abia State as historic, salutary and heroic. The Federal government is
hereby advised to weigh this option comprehensively in the best interest of
Nigeria.
Government must put an end to all forms of support for terrorism.
In his beautiful book “There was a country”, Professor
Achebe stated rightly that the Federal government is guilty of tolerating
terrorism.
His words: “Nigeria’s federal government has always tolerated
terrorism. For over half a century the federal government has turned a blind
eye to waves of ferocious and savage massacres of its citizens-mainly Christian
Southerners; mostly Igbos or indigenes of the middle Belt; and others-with
impunity”.
Achebe stated further; “Even in cases where their hands were found
dripping in blood, the perpetrators have many a time evaded capture and
punishment. Nigeria has been doomed to witness endless cycles of inter-ethnic inter-religious
violence because the Nigerian government has failed woefully to enforce laws
protecting its citizens from wanton violence, particularly attacks against
non-indigenes living in disparate parts of the country”.
The Federal Government must demonstrate strong political will to
deliver social justice to the thousands of people that have lost their bread
winners in the ongoing terror-related violence in the North. Any peace without
justice to the victims is peace of the graveyards.
* Emmanuel Onwubiko, Head, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF
NIGERIA, blogs @www.huriwa.blogspot.com.
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