The persistent global wars, resulting in loss of lives and increase in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) despite the statutory position of the United Nations (UN) to deal with the situation, lent credence to the affirmative questions by the late Fela Anikulapo Ransom Kuti, Nigeria’s ‘original Basket Mouth’ when he asked in his 1986 classic “wetin united inside United Nations” and “Who and who unite inside United Nations?”.
The disposition of Fela, who was then a human rights activist and political maverick by all standards, was that “No be there Thatcher and Argentina dey; “No be there Reagan and Libya dey”; “Israel versus Lebanon”; “Iran versus Iraq”; East West Block versus West Block East”; and concluded that the killings in these countries and the global influence of the then Margaret Thatcher, a former British Prime Minister and Ronald Reagan, former US President does not portray a united world united by the UN.
“Fela is always right and was right about the United Nations”, said Issa Aremu, former vice president, Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC). “Under the UN, they killed Muammar Gaddafi; under the UN over 200 school girls were abducted in Nigeria and the UN could not tell us where they are. America could not tell us where they are, with all its radars. Fela was prophetic; he has seen all these. Under the nose of the UN the world is at war. The UN is actually generating internally displaced persons, I am serious. The Chibok girls have been in captivity for over two years and America could not tell us where they are. So, Fela was right. But Nigeria is a Federal Republic, let it fix its house”, Aremu said.
Since the year Fela refused to believe in the statutory position of the UN and consequently ill-labeled by those with opposing views, inhabitants of the world had witnessed and are still witnessing devastating massacres on a global scale ranging from man-made disasters to hunger and deprivation. From Syria to Lebanon; from Pakistan to Afghanistan; from Iran to Iraq; from Libya to Mali, Rwanda, Somalia and to Ukraine, it has remained gory tales of man’s inhumanity to fellow human beings.
According to report, within four years of the Syrian war for instance, more than 250,000 Syrians have lost their lives in the armed conflict, which began with anti-government protests before it escalated into a full-scale civil war; and more than 11 million others forced from their homes as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to his rule battle one another – as well as jihadist militants from Islamic State.
Only recently, in what observers call ‘battle of supremacy in Syria’, one of four Russian Mig-29 Fulcrum war planes on-board a Russian armada arrived to the eastern Mediterranean and crashed off Syrian coast. The plane was returning from its first mission over Syria when the accident occurred.
Some policy analysts who are of the view that the UN assignment is long overdue for a review are alarmed that the world body established on October 24, 1945, in Lake Success, New York, United States, to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” and to “maintain international peace and security” has become a fund-raising organisation for victims of war, rather than stopping the war from happening.
In an obvious appeal to philanthropists not to forget the Syrian refugees, the UN early this year stated that the Syrians were enduring worsening conditions as the conflict which started on March 15, 2011, heads towards the 6th year.
In recent weeks, Russian attacks on Aleppo against rebels opposing the Syrian regime and other parts of that country have intensified, following Moscow’s announcement that its plane were reengaging in Syria.
The Russian flotilla now docked off Syria’s coast is expected to be the focus of a new aerial offensive with missile strikes and air raids on besieged Aleppo, launched from the vessels, according to report by local media.
Western countries and human rights activists have accused the air forces of the Damascus government and its Russian ally of repeatedly targeting hospitals, bread lines and other civilian infrastructure in territory controlled by the rebels. Both Moscow and Damascus have denied doing so and say their air campaign is directed against military targets belonging to the rebels, who they describe as “terrorists”.
Although, it has always been on different level and dimension, the news about wars and rumour of wars- both the ones orchestrated by host governments backed by foreign power(s) against rebels and foreign power(s) backed rebels against government as in the case of Russia and the US; and religious terrorism against a state like Boko Haram and Ashabab, solution(s) from the UN appear far away, as killings continue.
John Kerry, the outgoing U.S Secretary of State, announced on September 12, 2014 that the United States was providing nearly $500 million as humanitarian aid to help those affected by the war in Syria. On November 22 in Istanbul, Turkey, Joe Biden U.S.,outgoing Vice President, announced nearly $135 million in new U.S. government funding to help respond to the ongoing emergency food needs inside Syria and in neighbouring countries hosting Syrian refugees, bringing a total US humanitarian funding to the Syria crisis to more than $3 billion at the time.
In a desperate move, the UN also sent humanitarian aid convoy into rebel-held areas of Syria without government’s consent in July 2014, with Ban Ki-Moon, the outgoing UN chief, accusing warring parties of denying assistance to millions as a tactic of war.
António Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister, is expected to be the next UN secretary general; after the Security Council agreed he should replace Ban Ki-moon at the beginning of next year.
The UN Security Council had unanimously adopted a resolution that authorised aid access at four border crossings from Turkey, Iraq and Jordan, even though the Syrian government deems such deliveries as incursions.
But the international community seems to have turned deaf ear to the plight of Nigerians in the northeast that have lost all to the Boko Haram sect and are now wanderers in their own country; seeking help from Churches and Mosques.
“The United Nations reported that by the end of 2014 more than 700,000 Nigerians were internally displaced and 142,000 sought refuge in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger”, says the last report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
According to USCIRF, based on these concerns, in 2015 USCIRF again recommends that Nigeria be designated as a “country of particular concern” (CPC), under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). USCIRF had first recommended that Nigeria be designated a CPC in 2009; Nigeria was on the Commission’s Tier 2 (Watch List) from 2002-2009, but USCIRF regretted that the US State Department has not designated Nigeria a CPC.
Jean Gough, UNICEF Nigerian Representative, warned that some 50,000 Nigerian children could starve to death this year in Borno State alone if nothing is done to arrest the humanitarian crises facing over 250,000 children under five years, who are suffering from malnutrition.
In Syria and Iraq, Islamic State, to which Boko Haram has pledged allegiance, has made it difficult or deadly for civilians to leave territory it controls. Men departing the jihadists’ Syrian stronghold of Raqqa or Mosul in neighbouring Iraq must leave family behind as insurance that they will return.
Issa Aremu said it is a wishful thinking for Nigerians to expect the UN and America to come and develop the country, saying that they (UN and America) “refused to allow Jonathan to buy weapons to fight Boko Haram and now they have refused Buhari, too.”
“Is it Trump that will sell arms to us? They have not met our expectation for signing in as member of UN. We have signed in to many ‘goals’, including Millennium Development Goals. That is why I have issue with Obiageli Ezekwesili joining the ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ movement. She was a minister of education in Nigeria; what did she do to protect public schools from this kind of abduction? This doesn’t happen in private schools because they are secured to certain extent,” he said.
According to him, “The lesson from America not allowing us to buy weapons is that why should we be even buying weapons in America when we can develop and build our own weapon industry? South Africa would not do that. These are countries that will set up Defense Industry together. But we are producing chairs and Fanta in our defense industry. That is what the defense industry is doing in Kaduna today. The UN is run by the US and they put people that would listen to them there. Fela is always right. How can anybody deny that? The world has always been at war under the UN.”
Some pundits are predicting that the emergence of Donald Trump as US next president from January 20, 2017, would not translate into an instant blessing for Syria and other war-torn countries because world leaders like Vladimir Putin, Russian president, a strong supporter of the US President-elect has military forces on ground in Syria and may not back out any time soon.
Bashar al-Assad is already banking on the support of the American real estate billionaire-turned politician; as he said in an interview aired recently that Donald Trump will be a “natural ally” if the US president-elect fulfills his pledge to fight “terrorists”.
In his first reaction to Trump’s election victory, the Syrian president struck a note of caution and said he was unsure the American billionaire would be able to keep his word and step up the fight against jihadists.
“We cannot tell anything about what he’s going to do, but if he is going to fight the terrorists, of course we are going to be ally, natural ally in that regard with the Russian, with the Iranian, with many other countries,” he told Portugal’s RTP state television.
But if the US President-Elect’s electoral promises were to be taken seriously, the UN and NATO may not have good working relationship with the next American leader. Trump had suggested that under his leadership America would not necessarily come to the aid of NATO ally under attack, saying he would first consider how much they have contributed to the alliance.
Speaking to journalists in Cleveland on the night before he was due to accept the Republican nomination for president, Trump also warned that if elected, he would not pressure Turkey or other authoritarian allies to end crackdowns on political opponents or the suppression of civil liberties.
Trump repeated his insistence that other countries should start sharing more of the defense costs long borne by Washington, and that US allies would understand his new approach to collective self-defense and could involve cancelling treaties he believes place too great a burden on the US.
John Orhewere, head, mass communication department, Auchi Polytechnic, said under Donald Trump presidency, the UN will sure continue to play its role, which he believed has been reduced to giving relief materials to war victims and loyalty to America and her allies.
“Fela was prophetic when he sang that song because world war has taken a more dangerous dimension. How is the world united when war has been going on in Syria for nearly six years? How is the world united when the West is using coal energy system but is refusing Nigeria and other African countries the chance to develop the same project? You know Fela was not an ordinary fellow. Everything he sang about Nigeria and her leaders are playing out today. The guy was just too good. I want to believe like Fela that there is a bunch of deception in UN. I can’t really see anything united in the world,” Orhewere told BDSUNDAY.
According to him, more worrisome is that the UN could not use its position to persuade America and other world powers to use their intelligence to assist Nigeria to locate where the Chibok school girls were kept by their captors.
“With all their technological advancement, the west could not help us locate where the girls were kept. They stopped Jonathan from buying weapon now they have stopped Buhari, too. Nigerians can now see that it was never about Jonathan or perceived corruption in his government. It was about interest.
“What Fela sang about at that time about the UN is now manifesting. It is obvious that the UN is united to promote certain interest. Maybe they are standing on our way to progress because we are not running our country the way they want it run. They are happy the way we are going forth and back because they are afraid of us making a head way. What Fela sang about is really coming to pass.
“I think the time has come for UN global role to be redefined to truly reflect its name, or be scraped if we cannot do that. The UN has lost focus from its statutory mandate. The job of the UN is not just giving relief materials to victims of war; but stopping war from happening. If we are to measure its achievements by this, it has failed humanity, woefully. It should not be acceptable for an organisation set up to forestall war to only be giving relief materials to victims of war after the war has taken place,” he said.
Nathaniel Akhigbe
