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From Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar
Former Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Staff, General Martin Luther Agwai, rtd, has warned security professionals that winning wars on the battlefield does not automatically translate to lasting peace.
Agwai gave the warning on Friday while delivering a lecture titled “Introduction to Conflict Resolution Mechanism” to participants of Naval Warfare Course 10 at the Naval War College, Nigeria.
According to the retired general, “Sustainable peace requires more than the cessation of hostilities.
“It demands a deliberate combination of conflict prevention, management, resolution, diplomacy, mediation and, where necessary, military intervention.”
He cautioned that the absence of violence does not mean peace has been achieved, stressing that unresolved grievances often fuel renewed conflicts.
“Defeating an adversary militarily does not necessarily eliminate the grievances that caused the conflict.
“That is why repeated military engagements fail to produce lasting peace when political and underlying issues remain unaddressed.”
The former Army Chief explained that conflict arises from competing interests and is driven by three interactive dimensions: contradiction, attitude and behaviour.
He urged officers to distinguish between conflict, crisis, violence and war, noting that not every conflict becomes violent and not every violent situation requires the same resolution mechanism.
Agwai identified early warning and early response as critical to preventing escalation and tasked authorities to detect emerging tensions and intervene through dialogue, mediation, community participation and political engagement.
Where prevention fails, he added, tools such as ceasefires, negotiations, peacekeeping and humanitarian intervention can contain violence. However, that resolution must address root causes and produce mutually acceptable solutions.
He added that conflict transformation goes beyond ending violence and involves changing the relationships, structures and conditions responsible for sustaining conflict.
The Commandant of the Naval War College, Rear Admiral M.A. Muye, described the lecture as “academy plus experience,” and said the College would continue to draw on Agwai’s expertise for future strategic leaders.
