Politics
Lessons From Rwanda
In 1994, the unwarranted and gruesome genocide unleashed on the minority Tutsi ethnic group in Rwanda sent shock waves across the globe as the end result was over 800,000 people killed in just 100 days.
Those killed included men, women and even babies in the cradles. Also an estimated 250,000 women and girls were raped with some of them infected with HIV.
How did these killings start? The Kingdom of Rwanda was a peaceful place until the advent of colonialism which saw it placed under the rule of Belgium after the first World War. The policies of the colonial Belgian governors later ensured that there was class division along ethnic lines by even issuing identity cards stating one’s ethnic affiliation and these identity cards were used in terms of employment, and admission into schools.
Consequently these absurd policies were inherited by the post independent government in 1962 and never abolished.
However the history of Rwanda has never been that peaceful as in 1959 Hutu revolution had forced about 300,000 Tutsis to flee the country. And by 1961 the King who was of Tutsi origin was sent packing, the country was declared a republic; the monarchy abolished, and a Hutu, Gregoire Kayibanda, elected as president.
Kayibanda’s presidency was shortlived as he was overthrown in 1973 by juvinal Habyarimana, who ruled till he was killed with his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntayamira, when the plane they were on board was shot down over kigali, which later triggerd the orgy of killings, the killing was put to an end when the Tutsi led Rwandan patriotic front which had been fighting the government took control of the capital, Kigali, on July 6 1994.
25 years after the killings how far has the country gone to mend the wounds of the past? Today in Rwanda nobody is talking about one’s ethnic background as the obsolete identify card with one’s ethnic classification or social status has been abolished.
Everybody is now a Rwandan by classification. Immediately the Rwandan patriotic front took over the reins of power it also began the process of reconciliation whereby those who took part in the killings of their neighbours and friends had to visit the survivors to apologise, for the role they played in the sordid history of the country. And for those top government and military officers the consequences for their actions were just terms and apologies.
These efforts by the government today have brought about tremendous change in the society. Also memorabila of what took place could be seen in museums in the capital Kigali and other cities with the slogan “Never again”.
For killing to take place in such a speed and the huge number of casalities, quite a number of factors were involved such as hate speeches, government support, religious leaders indifference and sometimes encouragement of one segment of the society against another and foreign power conspiracy to create chaos in the African society. France, Belgium were specifically blamed by the Kagame administration, for aiding and being indifferent to the killings the Catholic Church in Rwanda.
There was a stage when even the Canadian born UN Peace Commander had to emotionally beg for the UN and other international bodies for assistance to stem the killings but found no support, only silence until when the magnitude of the crime was revealed to the world that people started making-half-hearted statements on the genocide.
Initially, France denied complicity but just recently French President, macron has set up a high powered body to look into France’s role in the 1994 genocide. Former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said “The failure of Rwanda is 10 times greater than the failure of Yugoslavia, because in Yugoslavia the international community was interested, in Rwanda nobody was interested”.
Hate speech, discrimination and killings do not just start in a day, it has been going on over the years in many countries. In 1913, over a million Armenians were butchered by the Turkish government, with their churches desecrated. The indigenous population of Turkey, the Greeks today are not more than 5,000 in a population of about 80 million people. The second genocidal incident in modern times was the holocaust of 1939 to 1945 during the second World War instigated by Adolf Hitler, that of Cambodia under Pol Pot. But that of Rwanda was the worst as 70 of the Tutsi population was wiped out in just 100 days.
What are the lessons we, as Nigerians can learn after fighting a bitter civil war, following a similar bloody history of hate speech and genocide which saw to the death of one million Nigerians mostly from the South Eastern part of the country?
Although the Nigerian situation was better, for the past five years there has been bloodletting, killings and destruction almost on weekly basis in parts of the country.
Book Haram is still committing atrocities in the North West, with bandits holding swart in Kaduna Zamfara and Katsina and the Abuja-Kaduna highway.
According to the governor of Zamfara State, within the past five years 3,526 persons were killed by armed bandits with 500 villages destroyed, yet the country is not at war.
Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians are living in refugees’ camps in their own country with the government doing literarily nothing to stop the violence.
If the Rwanda Patriotic Front under Paul Kagame can put a stop to killings within one week of taking over power with virtually no resources at his disposal under a civil war situation, why can’t the Nigerian government with huge resources at its disposal unable to put an end to the menace of Boko Haram and armed bandits are they spirits?
For too long, the menace of armed groups have been overlooked and it begins to look suspicious that there are fifth columnist groups who want instability and another round of civil war to occur in Nigeria.
The government should take the issue of security seriously, otherwise what is seen as insignificant will one day snow ball into something more dangerous, that will affect the whole country. Killings by so-called herdsmen are still on with no serious attempts made to arrest the culprits.
If we reflect back when the issue of Boko Haram and the banditry in Zamfara started, a lot of Nigerians especially in the affected states were playing politics with it. Today some personalities can’t go to their villages even duns public holidays or weekend as their communities have been razed.
In Nigeria let the truth be told, we don’t value human life. There is no difference between the living and the dead. Our leaders don’t have empathy.
Is it today that the presidency will sit up and realise that the killings in Zamfara State had to do with the mining sector?
There is this suspicious feeling that the killings in part of Sokoto, Zamfara, Kaduna Benue parts of Adamawa Kogi and Enugu states are not herdsmen/farmers clash but a well thought out plan to eliminate the indigenous population of those area because the land there abound with precious mineral resources.
Today these suspicions have been partly proven by the recent statement by the president that all foreigners in all mining sites in Zamfara should quit the area and mining activities be suspended.
So government knew all along that the killings in these areas were economically motivated and had kept silence. What a shame!
Tonye Ikiroma-Owiye
Governor Douye Diri has set a target of at least one million votes for President Bola Tinubu in Bayelsa State in the 2027 presidential election, while charging the newly inaugurated All Progressives Congress (APC) State Campaign Council to prioritise reconciliation, party unity and collective electoral mobilisation.
Governor Diri gave the charge at the inauguration of the 20-member campaign council at the APC secretariat in Yenagoa, where he warned that internal divisions could undermine the party’s efforts to secure victory for President Tinubu and other candidates at the federal and state levels.
Governor Diri urged party members who were not appointed to the council to support its activities by taking the APC’s message to communities, wards and polling units across the state.
He specifically charged the campaign team to mobilise at least one million votes for President Tinubu, arguing that Bayelsa’s voting strength had increased and should be reflected in the 2027 election results.
“I give you a target that in Bayelsa, we must not bring less than one million votes for Mr President. You are going to campaign, and you have a lot to talk about the President. He has done so much for our people,” the governor said.
He listed the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, the second phase of the Nembe-Brass Road, interventions in the power sector, federal appointments for Bayelsa indigenes and the establishment of the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy among the achievements the campaign should present to voters.
The governor particularly praised President Tinubu for the coastal highway project, arguing that it reflected federal attention to the development needs of coastal communities.
“No president, alive or dead, has remembered the coastal people and coastal states to say let us do this signature project from Lagos to Calabar. The first president to think about it is Bola Tinubu, and those were the demands of the Ijaw people,” he said.
Governor Diri also expressed hope that a second term for President Tinubu would provide an opportunity to advance demands for fiscal federalism, greater resource control and state policing, which he described as longstanding aspirations of the Niger Delta.
He said the President had shown indications of addressing some of the demands of younger Nigerians and argued that re-election would allow the administration to consolidate its reforms.
The governor further cautioned campaigners against personal attacks and abusive exchanges with political opponents, insisting that the APC should focus its campaign on issues, policies and achievements.
The governor’s mobilisation directive comes amid criticism from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has questioned his commitment to President Tinubu’s re-election campaign, alleging that APC campaign billboards erected across Yenagoa promote other party candidates without featuring the President.
The PDP, through its Publicity Secretary, Mr Ikaebimo Mark, said the billboards showed Governor Diri urging voters to support APC candidates for the National Assembly and State House of Assembly elections without identifying President Tinubu as the party’s presidential candidate.
Mr Mark described the omission as an indication that the governor was not fully aligned with the APC’s national leadership.
“When we said that the governor, Senator Douye Diri, is not supporting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we knew exactly what we were saying. Now Governor Douye Diri has erected APC campaign billboards across Bayelsa State without Tinubu’s picture. He is even afraid to associate himself with the photograph of the presidential candidate of his own party. How can this governor claim to be supporting President Tinubu?” he said.
The PDP, however, maintained that the governor’s public campaign posture raised questions about his commitment to the President’s re-election bid. Its allegation over the billboards now places the issue of the relationship between the state APC leadership and the party’s national campaign among the political questions likely to feature in Bayelsa’s preparations for 2027.
The PDP’s allegation has introduced a fresh political dimension to the APC’s preparations in Bayelsa, even as Governor Diri publicly called on party leaders and members to close ranks and mobilise support for all its candidates.
“Every person picked as a member of this campaign council was carefully scrutinised. I want to tell you that our campaign team is loaded. We parade the best candidates among all the parties in Bayelsa State, and there is no doubt about that,” he said.
He urged members to remain focused and united, warning that political opponents could exploit any divisions within the party.
“Our unity is very important because they would want to feast on our disunity. We will not give them that opportunity. Please, as you carry out this assignment, do not take your eyes off the target,” Hon. Ogoriba said.
SP Edafe explained that during the meeting, the organisers were briefed on the identified security threats and advised against embarking on an open-road procession.
Instead, the police reportedly recommended that the political activities be conducted at a designated venue where adequate security arrangements could be provided.
However, the Command alleged that the organisers disregarded the security advice and proceeded with the road procession.
Meanwhile, the Delta State Government has condemned the political violence that erupted in Asaba, the state capital, on Saturday, confirming that one person was killed while four others sustained serious injuries.
The government described the incident as unfortunate and unacceptable, warning political parties and their supporters against actions capable of threatening public peace, security and democratic participation in the state.
In a statement issued by the Commissioner for Works (Rural Roads) and Public Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, the government reiterated its zero tolerance for political violence, intimidation and other forms of political misconduct.
Mr Aniagwu said the government had repeatedly cautioned political parties against engaging in activities capable of disrupting the peace, insisting that the incident could have been avoided if the organisers had followed security advice.
According to him, the police had advised the organisers to cancel the proposed street march and instead conduct their political campaign at a designated venue where adequate security arrangements could be provided.
He expressed concern that the advice was allegedly disregarded, resulting in a confrontation that claimed one life and left four other people seriously injured.
The government subsequently called on the police to conduct a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the violence and ensure that anyone found culpable is brought to justice.
Mr Aniagwu further warned that the state government would not tolerate politically motivated attacks against any individual, regardless of political affiliation.
He maintained that Delta State remained safe for residents and visitors, stressing that the government would not allow the actions of individuals or groups to undermine the prevailing peace and security in the state.
The government also urged political parties, their leaders and supporters to conduct their political activities within the confines of the law and demonstrate respect for human life, public order and the rights of other citizens.
The latest development follows an attack on supporters of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) during a political procession in Asaba, which reportedly left several participants injured and campaign vehicles vandalised.
The government’s condemnation comes amid growing concerns over political violence and the safety of opposition supporters as political activities intensify ahead of the 2027 general elections.
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