Don’t Ignore the lessons of History.

The Genocides in Rwanda, Darfur, and the Congo are a freighting and chilling reminder of how human intolerance and disdain for cultural, religious and ethnic differences can escalate to unimaginable levels.

These countries will live forever with the memories of these brutal and inhumane killings, even as they struggle with their truth and reconciliation commissions, and try to rebuild their countries. The scars of violence will forever be imbedded in their minds and history.

When history is referenced, its most important element are the lessons learnt from the past. If any lessons should be learnt from these countries, maybe it’s that Broken government, corrupt officials and a frustration of the people can lead to spontaneous acts of violence, which in turn is fueled by hate, and gradually poisons the mind of the weak and gullible to do further acts of violence on a large-scale.

Today the Nigerian government (that’s if we have one) is ignoring the lessons of History. The spontaneous acts of Religious and ethnic violence between Christians and Muslims in the North that started in the 90’s rears its ugly head again in 2010. Thousands of innocent lives have been lost in the past months, but nothing is being done to seek a true and honest solution to this problem.

These acts of Violence are orchestrated by a few sadistic and power-hungry politicians, who prey on the weak and religiously bankrupt. They want to divert attention away from the unavailability of the president by shifting the focus of the national discourse, and changing newspaper headlines.

Thousands of innocent lives have been lost with this latest round of religious violence. Innocent Men, women and children were hacked to death in cold blood all in the name of religion. The government has done nothing to compensate the families of this horrific tragedy, to rebuild their homes or to even take an inventory of exactly how many people died. Rather it is preoccupied with politics of power!

The government is busy with solidifying its power base. They ignore the signs, that show nothing but a disaster waiting to happen. The Jonathan/ Yaradua power struggle continues, all the Abuja elites are interested in is how to steal more money, and how to rig the election coming up next year. Nothing else!

The Niger delta is a good example of how when these signs are ignored, violence and lawlessness will inevitably follow. If the Government had been honest and paid attention to the issues of the Niger delta people maybe these militants will not have any audience today. If proper infrastructure and good leaders were in the Delta, maybe it would have been a daunting task to ask young men who had good jobs and a stable way of life to become mercenaries revolting against the government.

The Nigerian Nation risks being thrown into anarchy. If the Niger Delta thuggery, and spouts of religious violence are not checked.
With the age of the internet where fanatics are quick to inspire idle and jobless minds that violence is the way to go. Where imitation of Terrorist behaviour is on the rise ( weeks after the Christmas day bomber was caught an imitator sought to Bomb churches in Lagos) We risk the future of generations to come, we risk war, and a total breakdown of the law and order if we ignore the writings on the wall.