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The southeast is once again, the concern of the current leadership of the military. Still, for the wrong reason. Everybody desires peace. But the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, said on Tuesday that Simon Ekpa, a resident of Finland, is sabotaging efforts to restore the peace of the region. Gen. Musa spoke when he appeared, alongside other military chiefs, at a briefing with the House of Representatives.
General Musa’s headache is also the concern of a lot of people from the region, and even outside, who are seriously in search of antidotes to the violence that had reigned in the Igbo homeland, leading to loss of lives, decimation of businesses, and destruction of private property.
At this point, the concern is no longer about ‘who caused it’. It is about restoring the region to its pre-eminent status as the most peaceful in Nigeria. Yes, the southeast used to be the most peaceful of the geopolitical zones of the country. It rarely recorded bloodshed at the volume that it recorded in recent years. It was never known to have exiled its sons and daughters forcing them to observe their cherished cultural events in faraway lands. And, for several years, many Igbo sons and daughters have refrained from observing the annual exodus for Christmas. Politically, the violence has restructured the political leanings and alliances of the people creating a mindset that makes them a pariah at the center.
This is where the Igbo have lost the most. Recall that in the years between 2000 and 2003, the political southeast built an alliance with the political southwest that led to healthy political exchange and meetings between governors of both regions in what was called ‘Handshake across the Niger’. The new handshake now ought to be across Nigeria.
The outcome of those exchanges may have been lost much in the same way that the outcome of the marriage between the political southeast and political north has also been lost leading to uncertainty and some form of ostracism from the center. But hope it is not yet lost. Something tells me that the brains behind PISE-P (Peace in the South Eats Project), a project designed to reawaken the southeast and bring it back to the table through effectively managing social and political discontents so as to rebuild trust among the people and with their political neighbours across the country, mean business.
PISE-P is about restoring peace in the southeast region through “a comprehensive and non-kinetic approach anchored on seven pillars, we believe that sustained engagement in education, agriculture, commerce and industry, infrastructural development, culture and tourism, sports and entertainment, and governance and leadership will contribute to building resilient communities, fostering social cohesion, and facilitating sustainable development.” This is a statement on the purposeful pursuit of development which peace and stability facilitate. Properly stated, nothing of the seven pillars listed by promoters of PISE-P will make any meaningful impact in the lives of the people if the most essential ingredient –peace, is lacking.
This is the reason many people, within and outside the region, have emphasised the need for peace and are still making efforts to bring merchants of discord, violence, and brigandry in the region to the understanding that it is the region, and its people, that is most hurt under a regime of violence. Already, the effects are visible to even the blind.
Rebuilding the southeast is a task, not just for the political, religious, and traditional leaders and, indeed, leaders at all levels. It is a task before everyone who could organise themselves like PISE-P has done and develop programmes and approaches that could enable the restoration of Southeast to its pre-eminent position.
However, this begins with the people, especially its youths, refusing to be used to advance the intentions of merchants of violence. It also means rescuing southeast youths who had been sold to unnecessary and exuberant armed expressions, to drop their arms and embrace a life that opens them up to a better future –one that preserves their lives to become very useful members of the larger human society. This is because the history of the world is replete with examples of armed struggles that failed to achieve purpose and ended up in peace conference rooms.
Like Nelson Mandela said “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” I guess this is one reason that the brains behind PISE-P have set before themselves the task of regenerating the southeast through new advocacy for greater love and peace through which the elusive development could return to the region.
Indeed, even without government patronage, southeast people are capable of developing southeast. However, if the “security and welfare of the people” is the primary function of government, why would the southeast people make it difficult for the government to ensure the security and welfare of the people of the region?
This means that creating blockades for the government, either physically or ideologically, using political differentiations, will not yield any dividends for the Southeast. As it is now obvious, other regions of the country are looking to attract for themselves whatever is possible from the government.
Shouldn’t the southeast region also be in contention? This is something the region can achieve by standing behind its governors, political leaders, and representatives at the center to create the necessary linkages that would welcome the central government to the southeast. I guess this is why PISE-P is deeply interested in the restoration of peace in the region.
This is about a group of people who are genuinely interested in regenerating the social, political, and economic growth of the region and for the good of the people of the region.
This, therefore, is a call on merchants of the violence and criminality that has ravaged the southeast region to think through their actions again to see who is most hurt. It is a call to give PISE-P a chance
