The recent launch of project ‘Yigba’ by a group of concerned Nigerians under the auspices of Macedonia Initiative, Rethink Nigeria, Burdened Elders and Youth Coalition in Lagos leverages on how non-violent communication can deepen conversation on nation building.
Tagged as the first non-violent line of defense in an attempt to reprogramme and change the Nigeria narrative. Project Yigba, seeks to provide guidance for younger generations of Nigerians, in order to avert what it said is in the horizon for the country.
Ladi Thompson, a security expert and convener in a presentation tagged, “The Birth of A New Nation” said there is a need for a new Nigeria driven by an African idea. According to him, history bears witness that Nigeria was deliberately crafted to function as a prime deterministic chaos.
Accordingly, he states further that the present contraption called Nigeria will never be resolved without bloodshed except we do the due diligence to discover Nigeria’s solution algorithms and apply them.
Yemi Akisanya, one of the promoters of project Yigba in paper titled, ‘The Nigerian Key of Non-violent Communication’ posits that the approach is the most effective in solving Nigeria’s problems.
According to Akisanya, non-violent communication is being more proactive than reactive in speech conversation. “knowing how to ask for what you want, how to hear others even in disagreement and how to move forward solutions that work for all,” he stated.
Akisanya who is the coordinator of project Yigba says there is a need to understand the means of influence. “We must learn how to share power with others rather than using power over others,” he said stating that the application of non-violent communication de-emphasises self-interest.
According to Akisanya, the group promoting the YIGBA initiative, are firmly persuaded that the erection of a non-violent line of defence is the most effective strategy in reversing the tidal wave of negativity towering over the country.
He posits further that the best way to revisit and deal effectively with Nigeria’s stormy past and resolve the issues dividing the country, is to inject Non-Violent Communication (“NVC”) into Nigeria national narrative.
“NVC is a most effective tool whereby Nigeria’s ethnic and other interest groups, without necessarily changing their core identity or values, can work together in harmony to strengthen their common ideals and project their common interests, thus fostering the peace and progress of the nation of Nigeria,” Akisanya stated.
Agu Imo, another speaker at the launch of the project said, Nigeria has been dealing with issues of corruption and bad economy for years; while terror has come to make its home with us in the last 20 years.
“Nigeria has now become home to three of the most dangerous terrorist groups in the world: Boko Haram, Fulani Herdsmen and now Islamic State for West Africa Province (ISWAP),” said Imo.
According to him, Nigeria has been slow in understanding that she is dealing with a hydra-headed operation that is ruthless, unrelenting and merciless.
He posits further that Nigeria has refused to accept that her local face of global terrorism is primarily a supremacist agenda with an Islamic religious cover.
“Any attempt to focus on the various heads will bring about an attack from the others. If indeed you are successful in cutting off any of these heads two more will grow in the stead of the head that has been cut off,” Imo stated.
The senior citizens who spoke at the launch recalled the events that led to the civil war in the 60s praying Nigeria does not experience such again.
One of the Burdened Elders, Shyngle Wigwe said the prospect of another war in Nigeria must not be entertained. “If you remember the state of this nation before the Biafra war and after the war, it’s like we fell from a great height,” he said expressing great pleasure at the Yigba initiative.
Accordingly, he disclosed that the elders are burdened because they have started seeing similarities between what happened then and now. “Any nation that goes through war a second time is not likely to stand,” Wigwe concludes.
