Is war inevitable?

 

In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons.

– Herodotus.

It’s been over a year since Russia invaded Ukraine. That war is still raging with hundreds of thousands of people dead and property worth billions of dollars destroyed. Similarly, there is ongoing conflict between Tigray and Ethiopia which even predates that between Russian and Ukraine. That remains unresolved.  Just last week, Sudan started another round of civil war. Hundreds of lives are already lost, property worth millions of dollars destroyed and foreign countries including Nigeria have commenced evacuation of their nationals from that conflict zone. The question is, can the world not do without war?

There have been two world wars. According to Wikipedia, “World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. It was fought between two coalitions, the Allies (primarily France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the United States) and the Central Powers (led by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire). Fighting occurred throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated nine million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while five million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease.”

According to KARDS, an online publication, “World War 2 or the Second World War, often also called WWII or WW2, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. WW2 involved the vast majority of the world’s countries, including all of the great powers, forming two opposing military alliances: The Allies and the Axis powers. In total, WW2 directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries, the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and the only two uses of nuclear weapons in ww2. World War 2 was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, a majority being civilians. Tens of millions of people died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, massacres and disease. In the wake of the Axis defeat, Germany and Japan were occupied, and war crimes tribunals were conducted against German and Japanese leaders.”

Aside from the two world wars, there are also inter-tribal wars and inter empire wars. For instance, there was Kiriji War also known as the Ekiti–Parapo War, (July 30, 1877– March 14, 1893) was a 16-year-long civil war between the sub-ethnic kingdoms of the Yoruba people, specifically between the Ibadan on one hand and the Ekiti and Ijesa combined forces. Aftermath of the Second World War, there have been conflicts between North and South Korea, East and West Germany and conflicts leading to balkanisation of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia though the latter involves less bloodletting compared to that of the former.  The conflict between Israel and Palestine has remained intractable. According to International Crisis Group 10 conflicts to watch in 2023 are those in: Ukraine; Armenia and Azerbaijan; Iran; Yemen; and Ethiopia. Others are those in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes; The Sahel; Haiti; Pakistan and Taiwan.

The Centre for Strategic and International Studies 2023 Africa programme forecast, says “Armed conflicts in Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Sahel continue to destabilise countries and regions, exacerbating humanitarian needs and political crises. Democratic backsliding continues, with insurgencies, insecurity, and weak governance having led to military coups in Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Chad, and Sudan in 2022. In all five countries, there is little to no signs of successful democratic transitions in 2023.”

According to the French Philosopher, Albert Camus “Rebellion cannot exist without the feeling that somewhere, in some way, you are justified.” Causes of violent conflict or war include lack of equity, justice and fairness, discrimination, religious extremism, ethnic jingoism, repression, oppression, dominion, lack of civil liberties, lack of rule of law, corruption, poverty, underdevelopment, election manipulation, social-political exclusion, resource control, marginalisation and bad governance. Many of these causative factors and variables led to Nigeria’s three years of fratricidal civil war that took place between 1967 and 1970 in which estimated two million lives were lost and billions of dollars’ worth of property destroyed.

While the United Nations has succeeded in forestalling the outbreak of the Third World War since 1945, it has however failed to ensure global peace. Information gleaned from the website of the United Nation, says “The Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. It has 15 members, and each member has one vote. Under the Charter of the United Nations, all member states are obligated to comply with council decisions. The Security Council takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or act of aggression. It calls upon the parties to a dispute to settle it by peaceful means and recommends methods of adjustment or terms of settlement. In some cases, the Security Council can resort to imposing sanctions or even authorise the use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security.” The UN has embarked on 71 peace keeping operations across the world since 1948 and as of February 28, 2023 have 12 of such ongoing operations with 86,903 personnel.

Unfortunately, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council are the council’s biggest headache. They are China, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, France and the United States of America. These are countries with huge military might, economy and technological advancement. The veto power invested in them has perpetually robbed the council unanimity of decision on global affairs. Right now, one of them is the aggressor in Ukraine and all the sanctions (military, economic, political, sport) imposed on Russia have been ineffective.

The African Union heads of state and government adopted the programme for “silencing the guns by 2020” as part of the May 2013 Solemn Declaration marking the 50th anniversary of the AU and its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity. According to the declaration, AU states expressed their “determination to achieve the goal of a conflict-free Africa, to make peace a reality for all our people and to rid the continent of wars, civil conflicts, human rights violations, humanitarian disasters and violent conflicts, and to prevent genocide”. Three years after the set date for silencing the guns, conflict in Africa rather than abating is festering.

Among the negative consequences of war and violent conflict are humanitarian crises such as the refugee problem and internally displaced persons. There is also famine, hunger, loss of means of livelihood, homelessness, diseases, out of school children, lack of access to basic healthcare facilities, premature deaths, increase in the number of persons with disabilities, breakdown of law and order, lack of governance and underdevelopment. Given the litany of these negative impacts of violent conflict and war should it be further encouraged?

I am using this platform to make a passionate appeal to world leaders and multinational organisations such as the United Nations, African Union, and the Economic Community of West African States to be more proactive about global peace. It is rather unfortunate that awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to high profile political and religious figures across the globe, has not brought about world peace.  War is evitable once there is justice. Let’s please give peace a chance because without it, there can’t be development.