Nigeria, the place to be?

It was around 9:00pm when I was relaxing with my friend, Lucky Arhere in his Alarco Hotel in Agbara, Ogun State, Nigeria. It had been a busy day when my cousin, Esi and Ifeoma had a Church wedding. We were actually discussing the concerns of Nigeria especially the ongoing killings and what can be done to stop it. Suddenly a man entered with a bottle of wine and requested us to drink and celebrate Nigeria. I was surprised because this man is not a Nigerian. He is a citizen of Holland by name Jacco Ten Cate. He kept repeating the refrain, Nigeria is a great country! Nigeria is the place to be! You people should not allow any other country take over the wealth of your country. You have the man power; you have the natural resources. Yes, do not fall into the trap of international politics. I was wondering how a visitor to Nigeria could be so positive about Nigeria whose citizens are looking for a way to escape from. Then came the last shock from Jacco Ten Cate. He opened his phone and showed me the picture of his wife, a Nigerian woman. So I kept asking myself, “How can Nigeria be a place to be? A place where human life worths less than the price of a sparrow.

As if Jacco perceived what was going on in my mind, he gave me his card and I gave him mine too. He looked at the card and said, so you are the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council and the Secretary General of the West Africa Inter-Religious Council. I guess you  want to make a better Nigeria. Then he raised further questions. How are you going to change Nigeria? It is not in the nature of Nigeria to go through these challenges. You need to be different. Be proud of your tradition. How do you hope to handle waste management and Cultural change? Do not sell Nigeria to China or any other country. Preaching alone cannot change Nigeria. You need to be proactive. Honestly, Jacco rekindled the hope I have always had for Nigeria.

However, I thought of how Europe survived after a hundred years of various wars. I thought of the genocide in some countries of the world and how they were able to get on their feet again. I thought of the rise of America from a slave colony to a force that now rule the world. I thought of the training I had in 2010 in Kenya and the analogy of planting a tree that can endure for many generations. I questioned the information parents imparts on their children. Can this impression on the children give enough capacity to prevent conflict, reconcile conflicts and plan strategies and skills that can help the human person? Are the communities reconciled enough to grow into communities and the society that can have sustainable peace? Is it possible for children who are nursing how they would avenge the killings of their parents and relatives been transformed to work for sustainable peaceful coexistence at all levels? Can the children who have grown in criminality think of ethnic and religious harmony in our world?

Nigeria is potentially great but to actualize this greatness, we need to look again at the structures that keep putting the country asunder. How do we involve and integrate all the levels of human beings in the country? Who gives the president the national reality or situation report in the country? Can the poor reach the President, Governor, Bishop, the Chief Imam, the Royal fathers, the Chief judge, and the high class of the society? Do those charged with the welfare and security of the nation have enough time to read newspapers or listen to news on the television? Do they actually know the country they govern? Does the minister of works know that the roads have become death traps? Does the poor and oppressed get justice in court? Do those in charge of security respond to emergency with required urgency. Do medical practitioners attend to patients who have no money? Does the parish priest give adequate pastoral care to parishioners who are poor and lonesome? Do the rich and the poor receive equal attention in times of equal need? Does the social disparity not create a gulf in a way and manner that some prefer to die to escape the world since they cannot fly to the countries with functional system and structure?

We can have lasting peace with the capacity to integrate all levels of intervention in conflict management. The leaders and peace builders must resist the temptation to take sides in contributing to the larger justice and peace issues. The peace builder must act locally and think globally but with the consciousness that no single level, activity, person, organization is able to bring peace in isolation of others. There is need for collaborative effort! What follows is the intention, capacity, courage, space and opportunities of the peace builder to integrate people, roles and activities. Forming relationships is vital but how can the poor and the rich come together in a capitalist system? To enhance the meeting of people of different class, the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) invites all categories of the citizens to the opening ceremonies of every NIREC meeting. This is to create room for the poor and victims of violence to express themselves to the government officials who attend NIREC meetings. This is a way of sustaining an ongoing response capacity to address the cyclical nature of conflicts.

It is not easy to forget the hurts that one suffers from conflict. The appeal to forgive and forget can only be successful in the capacity to forgive after the predator has been made to face justice with commensurate punishment. If this leads to sincere repentance, then amnesty would make a laudable sense. However, his victims must be given more attention in the form of trauma counselling and welfare.  When perpetrators of violence and killings are given amnesty while the victims suffer, the nation must be prepared for a time bomb of vengeance. Government should therefore develop enduring local capacities for peace. People who have the passion for peace building with the zeal to make sacrifice should be encouraged and given enough capacity to work for peace at the grassroots level. This goes beyond merely going to villages. Grassroots here includes management of logistical mechanism and institutions, that is people oriented in the context of social spaces. This grassroots principle can transform violence and divisions. It can increase peaceful and interdependent relationship in order to create a space that is safe for people to live in peace.

Nigeria can really be a place to be if people can have jobs that can prevent them from being used for violence. If people have comfortable places to stay instead of sleeping under bridges in our major cities and if everybody has a job to do to earn a decent living, then, the meaning of life will be enhanced. No one who has a value for life would want to be a suicide bomber, kidnapper, terrorist or bandit. Nigeria will be a place to be if freedom of the press and religion are guaranteed. People should be free to worship God in Spirit and truth because if God does not build a house, in vain do the builders labour (Psalm 127, 1). God must be the beginning and end of our entire peace project. God at the center implies that we recognize human beings as creatures with divine nature (Genesis 1, 26-27). Humans are empowered by God to transcend their limitations with a deliberate change of negative attitudes and values to go beyond ourselves in developing a healthy society. Ideally, Nigeria is a place to be. May this reality dawn on our generation.

Rev. Fr. Cornelius Omonokhua is the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC [email protected]) & The Secretary General of the West Africa Inter-Religious Council (WA-IRC – [email protected]).