Written by Owei Lakemfa
Friday, 06 March 2009
THE Umaru Yar’ Adua government had pledged Nigeria’s commitment to transform Somalia from a failed state based on anarchism to a country with a central government based on the rule of law.
Under the auspices of the African Union (AU) the government last August reiterated its commitment to sending 850 troops as part of an African Peace Keeping Force in Mogadishu .
As part of the AU agreement, Uganda, a country experiencing civil war and needing all its troop complement, managed to squeeze out a contigent of 1,600 troops for the Somalian operation.
Burundi , a small African country with far less resources than Nigeria was able to send 600 soldiers.
Now Nigeria, Africa’s giant is reneging on its commitment. Foreign Affairs Minister, Ojo Madueke announced last week that the country would no longer honor its commitment to the AU because of the alleged deterioration of the situation in Somalia.
He cited the February 22 , 2009 attack on AU peace keepers which led to the death of as least eleven Burundian soldiers.
Madueke proclaimed that the government will not send Nigerian toops into a war situation.
The truth is that the situation in Somalia is not a normal one .
In the last two years 16,000 civilians have been killed, a million others have been displaced or forced into exile, a third of the population depends on aid while most of the city lay in ruins.
So Madueke is correct that a war situation exists in Somalia. The only problem with this revelation, is that a war situation has existed in that country since 1991, that is for 18 years!
General Siyad Barre had ran the country aground and imposed a dictatorship which a mass movement toppled by force of arms The Organization of African Unity (OAU) the fore-runner of the AU, had allowed the situation to degenerate because of a clause of non-interference in the internal politics of a member state.
After the country had descened into chaos, some African countries, notably Nigeria had offered a remedy by easing the Barre regime out and allowing a complete take over of the country by rebels. Barre was given asylum in Ikoyi, Lagos until he passed away.
Nigeria’s action of course saved some lives which would have been lost in the unstoppable rebel push into Mogadishu.
Unfortunately, Somalia has not recovered; the rebels soon split into various factions; individual and clan thirst for power have ensured the continuation of civil strife. A part of the country, Somaliland broke away, the rest further disintegrated.
For two decades, with mini-wars, hunger, piracy and a mix of Islamic zeal and personal greed, Somalia has become a failed state and one of the most dangerous places to live in the world. So the Yar’Adua government’s excuse that Nigerian peace keepers will no longer be sent to Mogadishu because of the war situation there, is untenable.
In the first place, why would Somalia need African peace keepers if the situation were normal? The African troops are not needed in Mogadishu for wedding parties or ceremonial drills, they are needed precisely because of the war situation which has pervaded the country for over two decades. Let me state that before the Yar’Adua administration, previous governments had ensured that Nigeria played outstanding roles in peace keeping operations.
Although the United Nations (UN) flag under which our troops went on peace keeping in the Congo of the early 1960s was a discredited one in the sense that it led to the removal, detention and assassination of the elected Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, our troops, however, get international recognition.
Our peace keeping efforts in Liberia and Sierra Leone had been carried out under similar unclear circumstances but the fact remains that we lost gallant soldiers in the process. We had played commendable peace keeping roles in Lebanon and lately in Darfur, Sudan .
In the particular case of Darfur our on-going peace keeping sacrifices are without blemish; while the world has failed Darfur by not ensuring that the full troop level of 26,000 troops are sent, Nigeria has borne the brunt, especially in terms of lives lost .
But inspite of this situation, it will be incorrect for our troops to broke and flee. Abandoning peace keeping in Darfur is not an option, but so also is it immoral for us to reneged on our pledge to the AU.
Based on the understanding of African leaders, some countries have sent peace keepers to Mogadishu. By reneging, we are abandoning fellow African troops to their fate. If other Africans follow our bad example, the situation in that country will be hopeless.
We have a duty to stand by the AU; if Nigeria feels that there is a need for the organization to review its position, we should have returned to AU and not jump ship. We should have pushed for collective decision and not take a unilateral decision.
Solidarity and commitment to Africa or international peace requires sacrifices. And inspite of our sacrifices in various war situations none can compared to that made by Cuba in Africa .
Nigeria had in 1975 led the OAU in recognizing the MPLA government in the newly decolonized Angola. But anti-African powers had decided to quash the new government and its people's resolve to be independent.
So the capital, Luandda was besieged by mercenaries, rebels of the FNLA and UNITA), the Zairean army and the then Apartheid South African army.
It was just a matter of weeks before Luanda would have been over-run, when Cuba under Fidel Castro decided to militarily intervene rather than watch from the side lines like most African countries. Many heroic Cubans paid with their lives, but they reversed the trend of the war.
For the first time, apartheid forces were militarily defeated. What Cuba, a Latin American country displayed was true international solidarity. The sacrifice demanded of us in Mogadishu is not up to a per cent of the Cuban sacrifices in our continent.
Source: Vanguard

 

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