Professor Niyi Osundare's Open Letter To President Bola Tinubu
Dear President Tinubu,
It all began as a roadside rumour before blasting its way to the front pages of Nigerian newspapers, and the talking points of the electronic media. Now it has become a news item discussed with torment and trepidation by many Nigerians still struggling to cope with the political dysfunctionalities, socio- economic problems, and numerous anxieties of present Nigerian life.
*Tinubu
The ‘subject of discourse’ is the coup d’etat in Niger, our neighbour to the north, and the present plan by ECOWAS under your leadership to force the restoration of democratic governance in that beleaguered country. What has got many Nigerians talking – and wondering – is the inclusion of military action in the cocktail of options under consideration by the ECOWAS leaders.
And this is also the cause of my worry and grave apprehension.
Military force to reverse the occurrence of rule by force in West Africa, with
you, President Tinubu, the current ECOWAS President, as leader of the pack? I
am both astonished and alarmed that a group of people, least of all, leaders of
the West African region would contemplate the viability of military
intervention as the solution to the present problem in Niger.
Dear President Tinubu, did you and your colleagues think long and deep before including this option? Did you contemplate the hazards of the action and the possible catastrophe of the consequence? Given the historical, geographical, cultural, and economic proximity between Nigeria and Niger (a Siamese closeness inherent even in the vey nomenclature), how can you do this without devastating collateral damage to Nigeria, especially her northern flanks?
In a region where
national borders only exist on a misbegotten colonial map, how will your ECOWAS
bullet select its casualties without including Nigerians, the people you have
sworn to serve and protect? Will the present human traffic and trade routes
between the two countries still continue after the ‘war’? What about the
possibility of a multiple-front war, considering the solidarity already
announced by a ‘league’ of other countries in the region, such as Mali and Chad
and Burkina Faso? To how many fronts will the ECOWAS forces train their guns?
For the avoidance of doubt, let no one take my position in this
brief intervention as toleration or condonement of military coups and their
barbarous assault on human freedom.
As a Nigerian victim of about half a dozen coups d’etat in a
single lifetime, I know first-hand how brutal soldier-despots are, and how
drastically they deplete our very humanity. This is why I believe military
juntas have no place in a civilized polity. This is why I also believe and
affirm that genuine democracy is the sure antidote to military misrule – a
democracy engendered and sustained by respect for human dignity, human and
environmental rights, rule of law, liberty, unvarnished integrity of the
electoral process, holistic equity, and the right to life that is full, free,
and abundant. These virtues are the true and efficacious coup-killers. Not
military-contra- military interventions and their thoughtless prosecutions and
ceaseless carnage.
So, Mr. President, go back to the drawing board – you and your ECOWAS colleagues. Think hard. Think well. Think up whatever measures could be devised to restore genuine, lasting democracy by getting the military dictators back to their barracks. Probe the cause, course, and symptoms of the present resurgence of military coups in West Africa.
Find a cure for this pandemic.
More important, find a cure for the plague of political and socio-economic injustices
responsible for the inevitability of its recurrence. Remember the present
brutish anarchy in Libya and the countless repercussions of the destabilisation
of that once blooming country for the West African region.
Military
action in Niger may only end up complicating the Nigerien fiasco. Remember: a
little fire often spirals into an uncontrollable blaze. You may know the
beginning of a war; but you can never foretell how it will end.
A powerful man may start a war, but it takes a hero to devise a
dignifying way of avoiding it. Right now, the Nigerian people have more than
enough to worry about, with so much hunger in the land and so many Internally
Displaced Persons (IDP) from all manner of bandit attacks. We cannot afford to
add war refuges to these crowds. You have promised to reduce the people’s
burden. Avoid taking any action that will only add to it.
Domestic security is the inevitable foundation for foreign
campaigns. Let your charity begin at home, though we know it must never end
there.
Your concerned compatriot,
Niyi Osundare
August 5, 2023.
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