SINCE the emergence of homosapiens on this planet, he has never been at peace with himself or his neighbours. In the beginning, he waged his war with flint; then with bow and arrow; and recently with the atom bomb. He now threatens to employ weapons of indescribable destructive power such as the hydrogen bomb.
All the ingredients of, and motivations for, man’s incessant and internecine rivalries – greed, self-interest, abuse and misuse of power, enthroning of might over right – are as present today as ever before.
There are two Chinas and two Koreas; and Vietnam is in the violent process of being permanently split into two. At the base of these unjustifiable divisions lie the naked self-interest, greed, and national aggrandisement of the U.S.A.. In the Middle East, 60 million Arabs have vowed to destroy the State of Israel, and drive away or wipe out the 2 million-odd Jews who constitute that State. Understandably, Britain, the U.S.A., and France uphold the cause of Israel. Also understandably, the U.S.S.R. and East European countries give full support to the Arab countries. We say understandably, because it is the undisguised policies of Britain, U.S.A., U.S.S.R. and other big powers to divide the world into economic and ideological spheres of influence, in pursuance of their national self-interests and aggrandisement, and of the mutual hatred and hostility which exist between the so-called Western and Eastern blocs. There is, otherwise, no rational basis for the capitalist Western bloc to give succour to socialist Israel, or for the socialist Eastern bloc to come to the aid of the Arabs who have always either killed, or kept firmly in detention, every known communist in their midst.
Africa continues, as hitherto, to be the butt of all manner of inhuman treatment and degradation. To the Whites in South Africa and Rhodesia, Africans are nothing but anthropoid apes, as Hitler contemptuously termed them. The White settlers in South Africa and Rhodesia have forcibly expropriated the aboriginal Africans of all the larger and richer portions of their lands, and relegated them to the position of hewers of wood and drawers of water.
In the U.S.A., the Negro Americans suffer grave social disabilities, so much so that there are now clear signs that the recent violent riotings by the Negroes may degenerate into civil war between White and Black Americans. The latent colour prejudice which has always existed in Britain, but which has hitherto been cleverly suppressed, is now bubbling to the surface; and there is a real danger of racial violence rearing its head soon in Britain.
In the pursuit of their naked self-interests, the developed countries of the world continue to exploit and cheat the underdeveloped countries by means of every contrivance and artifice which man’s ingenuity can invent with the result that the gap between the one and the other widens with the years: the rich getting richer, and the poor getting relatively poorer.
To cap it all, the great powers of the world have grouped themselves into two mutually antagonistic ideological camps, and seek feverishly and frantically to entice the weaker and underdeveloped countries into their respective spheres of influence. To this end, aids are proffered in kind and cash to the poorer countries. But the prospective donors always make sure that each aid or loan carries with it a host of humiliating strings and conditions which tend materially to help the donor countries more than the poorer countries, undermine the strength and vitality of the recipient countries, and ensure their permanent dependence on the donor countries.
In spite of this, it is incumbent on Nigeria, like all other countries, to discharge a three-fold obligation. Firstly, it has the primary obligation of catering to and promoting the welfare of its peoples to the end that they may live a full and happy life. As we have repeatedly noted, one of the purposes for which a State is ordained is the protection of its citizens against external aggression. In order to achieve this purpose, Nigeria must, by skilful and clean diplomacy and constructive propaganda, bring about a state of peaceful co- existence between it and its neighbours; it must foster mutually beneficial commerce with its neighbours so that it and they may derive obvious advantages from inter-territorial division of labour; it must put itself, to the knowledge of its neighbours, in such a state of military strength and preparedness as to discourage external aggression, or successfully resist such aggression if it comes.
It is an accepted diplomatic practice, of the Machiavellian type, for one country to foment troubles in another country with a view to thwarting the evil intentions and designs of the latter country against the former. It is also an accepted practice for one country to try to subjugate another by subversion. These are practices which are indulged in by all the big powers through various secret, powerful, and thoroughly ruthless and satanic organisations. It is our candid view that no obligation is placed on any country to do evil against another country, or to subvert its neighbours under any pretext whatsoever. A cardinal principle of world order must be that the sovereignty and integrity of every State are sacrosanct.
Accordingly, Nigeria should eschew these diabolical methods, and confine itself to the constructive and practical means of achieving peaceful co-existence with its neighbours, including a defensive military build-up which is capable of deterring any aggressor, at its own level. We have used the phrase at its own level’, advisedly.
In our view, Nigeria can only place itself in such a position of military strength as would deter any of its underdeveloped neighbours from contemplating, much less committing, aggression against it. It certainly cannot and should not aspire to acquire military resources large and potentially effective enough to deter any of the big powers from committing aggression against it. It is our firm belief, based on the sound principles of dialectic, that if Nigeria is economically free and strong and socially stable, and plays a constructive, consistent, and peace-promoting role in world affairs, the big powers as well as Nigeria’s immediate neighbours will refrain from entertaining aggressive intentions towards it, and will positively seek to live in peace with it. But if. in spite C!(such a role, any of the so-called big powers chose, for any reason, to commit aggression against it, the only course of action open to it would be to give a good account of itself in the battlefield.
CONTINUES NEXT WEEK
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