This millennium has witnessed the rise of many groups fighting against what is perceived as injustice. First was the Niger Delta millitant . Then came the bokoharam and finally the indigenous people of Biafra. Each group believe they are fighting a good cause. The millitant do not want their natural resources exploited and environment destroyed without compensation . The bokoharam are against Eastern education while IPOB want independence. In a nutshell, one is environmental and financially motivated, other is educational and religiously motivated and the third is tribal and politically instigated.
Each group believe they are the victim . The other group is the aggressor.The use of threat of violence is also a common attribute of all group. When we examine the world crises, we see a similar pattern. Adolph Hitler believed he was on a mission to eradicate the Jews from the map so as to make the world a better place. Osama Binladen believes the United States are forces of evil bringing corruption and domination to the Islamic world.
Each group sees the other as evil and desire to make the world a better place by eradicating the evil . The main cause of violence is the desire to eradicate evil. Let us assume the other party is as evil as potrayed , Is punnishnent the best solution?
One school of taught believe trading evil for evil serves as detterant to others . If that is the case, why does evil persist? Punnishnent is driven by desire for vengeance. An eye for an eye makes the world go blind. Violence breed more violence .we view the other group as different from us. A we vs them mindset. Our group is better,right,superior. This creates pride., Segregation. When we add religion to this feeling, we turn it to a holy war. Each group is moved by greed and selfishness that they refuse to see the wider implications of their actions. Violence occur because each group fear what the other side would do to them This fear grows into hatred. Hatred grows into anger. Anger result in violence. The frequent Christian versus Muslim war in kaduna and Jos follow the same pattern . Muslim fearing Christian dominance and vice versa.
The best antidote to evil is to replace fear with love. When love exist among group, bridges of connection is built rather than walls of saperation . When youth from each group are allowed to fall in love with each other and get married, families are forced to include each other in gathering. When enemies come together to achieve a goal, their dislike for each other reduces . Children born from such union would learn to like both group. Focusing our mind on evil empowers evil. An unmatched readiness to assist humanity , a desire for truth and a heart of compassion are what is needed. Peace can be achieved when we are inspired by an inner convictions to embrace the oneness of humanity to seek power through forces of love and partner.Any hateful thought towards any group diminished this power. We look for ways to handle our difference without aggression.we can begin by suspending our differences and focusing on our similarities.
THE NAKED NIGERIAN 