By Ochiaka Ugwu
The former President of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has said that contestation for power and struggle for leadership were the greatest cause of conflict in Africa.
Jonathan who made this known Tuesday in Abuja at the commemoration of International Peace Day said that what
causes conflict conflict in Africa was struggle for leadership and Contestation for power.
According to former President Jonathan, “But for me, the word peace originated in the 11th century. And that word came from one Anglo-French word, pais.
“And the old French word, pais, and both words originated from the Latin, pais. “But if you look to the various definitions, generally what we consider as peace is agreement, tranquility, harmony, lack of conflict, and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups of individuals.
“I’m particularly interested in the theme for this year, cultivating the culture of peace.
“Peace is what everybody wants. Because without peace, we can’t do anything. We all remember that peace is the foundation for sustainable development.
“And without it, no nation can achieve meaningful progress. Because the United Nations was settled at the end of the Second World War in 1945, of course, including the Security Council to promote world peace and minimize hostilities across the world. So everybody needs peace.
“And just like I said, I like the theme, culture, cultivating the culture of peace. What is culture? And what is peace? And if you look at what is happening now, and you look at the 2024 program peace index, you see how many countries are in conflict.
“And actually, 10 top countries are in conflict globally. Three of them are in sub-Saharan Africa. And quite a number of countries around us, including us, are in one form of conflict or the other.
“And when you look at what causes conflict in Africa, most cases is struggle for leadership, Contestation for power. And that is the main cause of conflict.
“Sometimes, when you go through a society, and you can tell all kinds of stories. But by the time you do proper analysis, and dig deep, you know that most causes of conflict is leadership struggle.
“Of course, people say politics is a dirty game. And the way we play our politics is the way we want to play it. We cannot play politics that will let the deceit come through.
“Remember Obasanjo, the former president, recently made a statement that politics is not dirty. But the people that play the politics, come to play politics with their dirty minds and dirty hearts. And dirty character.
“And that is why people say politics is dirty. And in that case, we must all begin to think differently. We must cultivate the culture of peace.
“And of course we know when we talk about the culture of people, it has to do with everything that you do around you. How you buy your food. How you worship your God.
“How you do your marriage. And everything about the language you speak is part of the culture. “And when you develop that culture of peace you do it seamlessly. You don’t even feel that you are doing something that is good.
“And until we get to that level where we develop the culture of peace, in this country, we will always have political conflicts in our election.
“And without us strengthening that effort, without us developing that culture of testing a nation peacefully, we will always be in conflict in Africa and in Nigeria.
“Because there are certain things that probably would have been done differently. And we must move away from that. In our electoral processes, I have been to a number of African countries.
“Let me give an example with a country in West Africa, Senegal, had their elections not too long ago.
“And because they have developed that culture, they did not use any technology. They did elections. I don’t want to bore you again by explaining what that is.
“That is simple. Here in Nigeria, we talk about technology. But without the human mind ready to do what is right, it will be a problem.
“If we bring the technology, they will manipulate it.
“Even when I wanted to vote, the card reader rejected me as a sitting president.
“My wife wanted to vote, and the card reader rejected my wife. My mother wanted to vote, and the card reader rejected my mother. So you can imagine, that was a recipe for crisis.
“We have to manage the situation. Otherwise, Nigeria will have gone into flames. Now, of course, we will have gone into flames.
“So the human mind, if we are tuned to that, we will develop that culture. In Senegal, everybody that was involved in the electoral process was ready to do the right thing. The electoral management body, like the INEC, was ready to do the right thing” he said.
