Of Peace, Conflict Resolution & National Cohesion – Chris Mustapha Nwaokobia Jnr

“My Son, we are better together than separate. What we need is the will to make right our union, and Statesmen whose motivation is to bequeath a fair Country to posterity” – Elder Chris Nwaokobia Snr (1939-2003).

Every so often serious issues of state dominate the intellectual sphere as well as the regular space, I find a unanimous call for peace, a concord that belies the anger in the land, a concord that belies the ethnic bend of leaders and the led, a concord that belies our regional and religious bigotry, and sadly a concord that fails to interrogate the reason there are internecine conflicts across the land.

Crises and conflicts are naught but natural occurrences that test our candour, our civility, our composure and our maturity. They are oftentimes man-made, they are products of our actions or inactions, and they are problems that a willing people can attempt and solve.

I write to stimulate a new thinking. I write to remind you my Compatriots that if nations have triumphed over racism, over apartheid, and over troubling dichotomies of Colour, WE CAN. I write to inform you my Countrymen and women that at some point in this union every Tribe, Creed or Clan has hurt each other, and have also at different times benefited from each other. I write to inspire the emergence of patriots and Statesmen who are willing to build a nation where Justice and Equity is prime. And I write because I agree with my father, that we are better together than separate.

May our debates interrogate the reason we are where we are, and may our drive prefer the highway of Peace, of Justice, of Equity, of Love and Patriotism over partisanship. To the Bridge, Dear Friends.

Chris Mustapha Nwaokobia Jnr