By Owei Lakemfa
It was a multinational gathering
which included 41 embassies. It was a trans-generational assembly which
comprised diplomats of the 1960s and 70s, activists of the 1980s and current
students, mostly from Bingham University, Keffi. Also in the assembly were
government officials, labour leaders, writers and academics. The gathering on
Wednesday, October 18, 2023 at the Rotunda Hall of the Foreign Ministry, Abuja
was organised by the foreign relations think tank, the Society for
International Relations Awareness, SIRA. The theme was: “Africa In The
Turbulence of A World In Search of Direction.”
As SIRA President, I welcomed
the assembly with the assertion that the slaughter in the Middle East, the war
of attrition in Ukraine, the carnage in Syria, the barbaric conflict in Yemen,
the blind war in Sudan, the unending battles in Somalia and other such conflicts,
diminish humanity. I reminded them that we are confronted with a world in which
the richest 10 per cent own 52 per cent of all income, while the poorest 52 per
cent get just 8.5 per cent. These realities and climate change, I argued,
endanger all humanity.