Trination Mega Festival : Bangladesh India Pakistan Photographs by Faisal Akram Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
The media shout out their tales and pummel us with their gory photos, of violence, murder, rape, hatred, and we at Engaging Peace try to provide some different perspectives, regarding events…
Engaging Peace has had posts on most of these horrifying stories, but, stubbornly, we have also continued to press the feasibility of nonviolence, most recently with posts from Dr. Ian Hansen and Dr. Majed Ashy as well as reminders from Ross Caputi and Dr. Alice LoCicero of ways in which you can help.
In today’s short post, I invite you to learn more about an important peace initiative aimed at promoting a stable peace between India and Pakistan.
Please be inspired by this model and send your words and images on behalf of peace and social justice—starting perhaps with the work that needs to be done in your own country.
Anyone anywhere can work for peace and nonviolence. The world will be better off if you join the endeavor.
Logo of Boko Haram Image by Arnold Platon, used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Dr. Bitrus Poga, the National Chairman of Kibaku Area Development Association, reports that the insurgents who kidnapped the Chibok schoolgirls numbered over 400. They came in big trucks, vans, and motor bikes, armed to the teeth with sophisticated weapons. The detachment of 18 soldiers stationed around the area could do little against such an overwhelming force. Two lives were lost, a soldier who died of a heart attack and a mobile police officer gunned down by the insurgents.
For more than two weeks after the abductions, no significant effort was made by either the Borno State government or the Federal Government to find the girls. If the local and foreign media had not saved the situation by drawing attention to this incident, the abduction of the girls would have been handled with levity– just like other cases of attack by the insurgents.
The Nigerian government rejected criticisms of its lax response, claiming that the Chibok story is part of a larger plot by some northern elements and other political rivals to depict the President, who is of south-south descent, unfit for re-election in 2015.
As for security in Nigeria, there is always a disparity between capability and willingness. The security sector has all of the funding and human capacity resources needed to make it one of the best in the world. Unfortunately, it cannot attain this lofty height due to the corrupt practices of those in authority. The Chibok situation has not only exposed the corruption, but also implicated those in charge of the nation’s security.
Mbaezue Emmanuel Chukwuemeka has a Masters of Science in Conflict Management and Peace Studies from University of Jos, Jos, Plateau State. He is a member of Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators.
This is the first post in a three-part series by guest author Emmanuel Mbaezue on the Boko Haram kidnapping of more than 200 school girls in Nigeria.
Parents of some of the victims of the 2014 Chibok kidnapping mourn their losses. Photo by Voice of America placed in the public domain.
As the world still struggles to unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, another horrifying incident has taken the world by storm: Boko Haram the ruthless insurgent/terrorist group operating in North-Eastern Nigeria, has abducted from Chibok, a community in Borno State, over 200 girls writing their senior school certificate examinations.
While the foreign media and the international community at large continue to pour out outrage and condemn this barbaric act in all its entirety, some pertinent questions give us great cause for concern:
Why is this particular attack by Boko Haram drawing so much international and local attention?
Is the modus operandi and the motive behind this particular attack isolated from previous ones?
Does Nigeria and the world at large consider the monstrosity of the abduction of the Chibok girls worse than the brutal, cold blooded murder of 59 of their male counter-parts in Government Secondary School in Buni Yadi, Yobe State, or the countless other lives that have been lost to the insurgency since 2009?
In answering these questions, we must take cognisance of the various sources of information available concerning this incident. A statement by an official of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to Nigeria’s First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan revealed that prior to the exams, there were warnings from the officials of WAEC to the Borno State government and the school authorities, suggesting that they relocate the girls to the more secure Maiduguri, the State Capital, for their exams. Strangely and unfortunately, those warnings went unheeded. Furthermore, before the insurgents arrived the ill-fated school that night, villagers from the neighbouring communities warned the residents of Chibok that the insurgents were headed their way.
Why were these warnings not heeded? We consider more information in our subsequent posts.
Mbaezue Emmanuel Chukwuemeka has a Masters of Science in Conflict Management and Peace Studies from University of Jos, Jos, Plateau State. He is a member of Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators.
Though intertwined with many beliefs and purposes, religious fundamentalists and extremists depart significantly from each other in their basic operations.
Mural in Son Severa by Frank Vincentz, used under CC Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Typically, it is the fundamentalist who creates the vision of the group and their religious and moral legitimization for action. While the leaders provide the concept, the followers design the practice or action.
It is usually in the process of implementing those designs that discrepancies between the original ideas held by the group leaders and subsequent actions arise—the traditional “follower fallacy.” Most importantly, it is also at this point that overzealousness, particularly from the followers, tends to magnify discrepancies.
There are a lot more differences between fundamentalism and the extremism that explain the violence-prone nature of religion today. However, it is important to deemphasize the role of religious leaders in religiously-motivated violence and focus instead on the most basic underlying causes of violence—for example, poverty and inequality–which can be manipulated for personal and group purposes.
Basically, the radicalism and blood-stained nature of religion today can be blamed mainly on structural defects. People frequently need something to believe in, particularly in times of crisis. As Karl Marx once opined, religion is the opiate of the masses.
If the violence and killing prevalent in society today are to be reduced, then we must be ready to help people gain the basic necessities of life. This could be achieved through an honest respect for fundamental human rights, recognized by both international and local laws.
Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Mbaezue has a Master of Science in Conflict Management and Peace Studies from University of Jos, Jos, Plateau State. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators, and works as a paralegal counsel at the Legal Aid Council for the Federal Ministry of Justice in Nigeria.
