Politics

Lessons From Rwanda

Published

7 years ago

April 12, 2019

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

Politics

Parties’ Deregistration: How Justice Lifu Overruled Appeal Court Justices

Published

1 day ago

June 17, 2026

The Tide

Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday brushed aside the order of the Court of Appeal in Abuja which ordered him to stay proceedings in a suit that sought deregistration of the African Democratic Party (ADC), Accord Party and three others.
The Court of Appeal in a unanimous decision of a panel of three Justices had on May 22, 2026 directed the Federal High Court Judge not to proceed with the suit until an appeal pending before them and filed by Accord Party is resolved.
In a Certified True Copy Enrol Order of the Superior Court, Justices Mohammed Danjuma, Adebukola Banjoko and Oyejoju Oyewumi asked the lower Court Judge to stay proceedings until all issues on the appeal filed by the Accord Party were resolved
Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State had, through the Accord Party, applied to justice Lifu to join him as a defendant in the deregistration legal battle instituted by a group of former legislators.
The contention of the Osun State governor was that he had a stake in the Accord Party, being the platform he was seeking re-election in the August 15 gubernatorial poll in the state.
In his ruling, Justice Lifu on April 27 ruled against the Osun State governor, rejecting his request to be joined in the suit to defend his own position and interest.
Not satisfied with the Federal High Court decision, the Osun State governor, through his lawyer, Musibau Adetunbi (SAN), moved to the Court of Appeal in Abuja where he challenged the Justice Lifu decision to refuse to allow him join the suit.
After listening to the argument canvassed, especially that he has interest to protect as Accord Party gubernatorial candidate for Osun State governorship election, the three Justices of the Court of Appeal, unanimously directed Justice Lifu to allow them look into the grievances of the governor.
In specific terms, the Court of Appeal Justices directed Justice Lifu not to proceed further with the matter and fixed October 27 to determine the interlocutory appeal of the appellant.
However, when the certified enroll order and notice of appeal were served on Justice Peter Lifu by Mr Adetunbi (SAN), the judge rejected it on the ground that it was a ploy to arrest his judgment in the matter.
Although the judge had adjourned his judgment delivery in the matter indefinitely, he finally made a dramatic turn around on Monday and proceeded to deliver the judgment that has now proscribed the five political parties.

Politics

ADC: Okonkwo Rejects Amaechi As Presidential Running Mate, Withdraws Support

Published

1 day ago

June 17, 2026

The Tide

Actor turned politician, Mr Kenneth Okonkwo, has rejected the choice of former Rivers State Governor, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, as the running mate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the 2027 presidential election on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
In a statement on Monday, Mallam Bolaji Abdulllahi, the National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, announced the party’s choice of Mr Amaechi.
However in a statement, Mr Okonkwo said that the choice of Mr Amaechi from the South South strengthens the continued marginalization of people from the South East.
According to the former spokesperson of the Labour Party, any arrangement that would not factor a person from the South East either as president or vice president in the party is anti-Igbo.
He contended that Chief Raph Nwosu, who founded the ADC in 2005 and willingly surrendered it’s leadership to Senator David Mark did not do so to entrench Igbo marginalization in the party.
The former actor said: “I heard from the social media that ADC has picked its vice presidential candidate from the South-South. If this is true, it is unfortunate, as this will continue the crude marginalisation of the South-East.
“This geo-political zone has neither produced a president or vice president since 1999. To deny the South-East the opportunity to produce the president or vice president in the ADC in 2027, will amount to perpetuating the marginalisation.
“The ADC was founded by Ralphs Nwosu from the South-East in 2005. He made the sacrifice to give up the party in 2025 for the coalition to usher in a better Nigeria. He couldn’t have made that sacrifice to marginalise his own people.
“I did not join the coalition to assist in marginalisation of my own people further. I am of the opinion that if we made a sacrifice to give up the national chairman and the president, it will amount to unpardonable injustice to deny us the vice president in 2027.
“I joined politics to fight for a better Nigeria where no region, geo-political zone, or person will be marginalised.
“The only favour I asked Atiku Abubakar, who openly declared that he is the pathway to the presidency of the South-East, is to show it by choosing someone from the South-East to be his vice.
“If it is confirmed that he has chosen a candidate from the South-South, I wish him well. I am not favourably disposed to campaigning for any presidential ticket that does not have a person of South-East origin as president or vice in 2027”

Politics

2027: Tinubu’s Projects Give APC Edge In South East – Yilwatda

Published

1 day ago

June 17, 2026

The Tide

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, on Monday said that the numerous projects being executed by President Bola Tinubu across the states in the southeast will give him upper hand over other presidential candidates during next year’s general elections.
Prof. Yilwatda stated this at the Abakaliki Township Stadium during a mega rally organized by the Ebonyi State government and Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, during which President Tinubu and other APC candidates for the 2027 general elections were adopted.
According to the APC National Chairman, no President had done for the southeast region what President Tinubu has done for them and expressed the confidence that the president would not only win in Ebonyi State but in the entire South East.
Prof. Yilwatda also used the occasion to address growing insinuations in some quarters that Ebonyi State had been conceded to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Dismissing the claim, Prof. Yilwatda said the state would not allow the PDP to win any position in the forthcoming general election.
“We will return President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Francis Nwifuru as Governor of Ebonyi State in 2027.
“We want to return all APC senators, members of the House of Representatives and House of Assembly candidates in 2027.
“Nobody has conceded Ebonyi to the PDP. Therefore, there is no vacancy in Ebonyi State. Ebonyi PDP has no place, and there is no vacancy at all in the Government House come 2027,” the APC National Chairman declared.
He commended the people of the state for their support for President Tinubu and urged them to re-elect him in the next presidential election in appreciation of what he has done for the state and the entire South-East through infrastructural transformation and human capital development.
Governor Francis Nwifuru, who also spoke at the event, said the state had no other presidential candidate for the 2027 general elections apart from President Tinubu.

He declared that Ebonyi remained a stronghold of the APC and vowed that the party would deliver the President in the state.

Gov. Nwifuru said President Tinubu had shown exceptional commitment to the state and deserved total support for appointing Senator Umahi as Minister of Works, a role he said Senator Umahi had performed creditably.

“Ebonyi has no other presidential candidate apart from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and we will return him in the presidential election.

“We are standing here today to tell the whole world, especially those using the President’s name to orchestrate division and confusion in this great state, that we have only one party, and that is the APC.

“This statement became necessary because some people are going around claiming they have discussed with Mr President and that he has handed Ebonyi over to the PDP. They are also saying that Chief Nyesom Wike is their leader and that Wike said the President has given Ebonyi to him.

“Ebonyi is not for sale. We are restraining ourselves because the people are with us. Nobody should push us because we have what it takes to confront anyone trying to destabilise us.

“We want to tell Mr President that he has earned our votes. He gave us what we had never had in Eastern Nigeria — the office of the Minister of Works. And this Minister of Works is not sitting idle; he is working,” he stated.

Senator Umahi, in his remarks, said President Tinubu had done what no other President had done for Ebonyi State and the entire South-East by executing numerous projects across the state and the region.

“Ebonyi State is a one-party state under Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru. We are not going to repeat the mistakes of the past.

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done a lot, not just for Ebonyi State but for the entire South-East and other geopolitical zones,” he said.