Gaza, Ukraine and the fallacy of infrastructure

No race keeps detailed records and evidence of genocide and has experienced it more than the Jewish people. Unfortunately, they use it as a justification for committing it against the Palestinian people. Out of a sheer love for humanity and compassion for the suffering of innocent victims, the rest of the world must not keep […]

No race keeps detailed records and evidence of genocide and has experienced it more than the Jewish people. Unfortunately, they use it as a justification for committing it against the Palestinian people. Out of a sheer love for humanity and compassion for the suffering of innocent victims, the rest of the world must not keep quiet or be intimidated by the Jewish people’s continuous reference to the holocaust.

Although it’s accepted that every nation has the right to self-defence, it is not appropriate to remain silent in the face of massive human rights abuses, and serial breaches of international law committed by Israel as it carries out its pogrom.  

There is no disputing that Hamas should rightly be condemned for breaching international law on October 7 and should be seriously reprimanded, however, it’s also true that Israel serially continues to breach international law.

It is trite that those who want equity should come with clean hands! The oppression and terrible cruelty being perpetrated against the Palestinian people can never be justified even as it will ultimately only consign the State of Israel to endless war. The Israeli position of casting itself as the victim of terrorism, hatred and anti-Semitism, is an insult to intelligence, decency and humanity. The truth is that Israel is a racist state.

FG moves to facilitate speedy delivery of attack helicopters to NAF

FG plans reabsorption of retired military officers

From its inception, the whole idea of Israel was based upon racism as they decided that the only way to get a Jewish non-Moslem majority in their democratic state was to expel the Arab/Palestinian owners of the land. The expulsion process, known as Nakba, led to the massacre of thousands of Arabs. Today the Israelis are simply trying to finish the job the Nakba started. It’s self-evident that they believe that they have earned the right to inflict genocide against others.

Indeed, as long as Israel rules over the Palestinian population, and disobeys international law violence is inevitable.  It’s time to ask the pertinent question of exactly how many Palestinians does Israel need to kill before they learn how to live in peace with them and cease murdering innocent civilians?

Countries like Israel which commit atrocities against civilians never admit to them until years later, so despite denials by the Israeli government, the growth of the Internet and real-time news has made it impossible to hide human rights atrocities. It’s routine to see videos of Israelis demanding for Palestinians to be totally eliminated.The invasion of Gaza has relegated the Ukraine war, Afghanistan conflict, as well as wars in Syria, Myanmar, and so many other places to the backburner proving to the Israelis that if they keep the killing going for long enough, the international news media will turn their attention to something else.  

Even as Nigeria experiences its own problems, those in authority can learn two important lessons from the conflict. Firstly, that there are two common factors in all the wars around the world; the total disrespect for, and abrogation of human rights, and secondly the willful massive destruction of infrastructure. This second factor should seriously concern those elected to lead the nation into the future.

It has become the mantra of presidents and governors to justify plunging the nation into debt to justify their financial profligacy by stating that the national priority is the construction of infrastructure.  Paradoxically in all the world’s current war-torn countries, their infrastructure is the envy of Nigerians, yet it did into stop them from willfully and indeed gleefully destroying it! It is sufficient evidence that developing a peaceful and prosperous nation has less to do with the proliferation of modern infrastructure, and more to do with the enforcement of human rights. 

Now that the Supreme Court has delivered its final judgment on the presidential election petitions, it’s time to focus on how the nation should be governed during the tenure of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The focus should be far less on infrastructure and far greater on basic human rights and the needs of the majority for proper healthcare and appropriate functional education.  If not, there is a clear and present danger that anti-democratic and unpatriotic forces can foment a level of discontent which may be uncontrollable.

It is time for those who won elections to be gracious in victory, while those who lost should face the future and perhaps try again in 2027 rather than grumble, and inadvertently create room for tribal genocidal conflict. Divisive ethnocentric appointments are a danger to the nation’s fragile unity. Inclusiveness must be the watchword. The truth is that ethnic politics is against the national interest. Political appointees, political jobbers and self-appointed “leaders of thought” must be far more cautious over their utterances as they pollute minds with unguarded, inciting and unpatriotic statements.

The majority of Nigerians now live below the international poverty line, yet even as the government is presiding over inflationary economic policies, it is also pursuing increases in taxation dangerously pushing the boundaries of tolerance by long-suffering Nigerians.  In all warzones peace-loving law-abiding citizens ARE always innocent victims.

Government must act to pacify discontent, mute political troublemakers who have only their personal interests at heart, and articulate a plan which can unite the nation to join hands and tackle the serious problems before the situation deteriorates any further. The lesson from Gaza and Ukraine is that modern infrastructure is not the most important consideration for peace to reign.