In suing for peace for Nigeria, we are reminded of the mess that high handed military operations have left behind in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and other forgotten war zones. In suing for peace for Nigeria, we are encouraged by the success of peace agitations in Hong Kong, we draw inspiration from Aung San Suu Ki’s Burma and the many marches of Martin Luther King, particularly the one in Selma.
Full text of the opening remarks of Collins Nweke at the Peace March for Nigeria held in Ostend, Belgium on Saturday 28 February 2015
My appreciation for my adopted country, Belgium, hit an all time high in April 2014 when news broke of the kidnap of some 270 girls in Chibok, North of Nigeria. I recall that while discussions centred around military intervention and deployment of international troupes to go out there and teach Boko Haram, a decisive lesson, the unique response, characteristic as it were, of Belgium was to send a team of non-military personnel to Chibok on a fact-finding mission, to investigate the the set up of humanitarian operation around Chibok. The whole idea was for Belgian psychologists and medical personnels to provide counselling to the families of the kidnap victims and to stand ready on the ground to provide counselling and medical help to the girls as soon as they are released.
While for some, that action was a drop in the ocean, it was for me strongly indicative of a country with its heart in the right place. Let us also place the situation in its right perspective: Nigeria is 17 times the size of Belgium and Belgium as a country is even smaller than one of the affected North-Eastern States of Nigeria. The Little Brave Belgium was at it again, I thought at some point.
I literally became an adult here in Belgium, having moved into this country in my mid-twenties. Most, if not all that I know today of peace as a concept was shaped here in Belgium. Maybe this is what age does to one but as I hit my 50th this year, I have more faith and confidence in the use of peaceful process to achieve even the most complex crisis. We have seen it at work in our very own Nigeria and elsewhere. After years of military cat and mouse in the creeks of the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria, it was the amnesty brokered by the Yar’Adua Administration that brought some calm there.
Whatever became of the planned humanitarian intervention by Belgium is for me currently unclear but I do have one piece of advise here: Belgium must continue to go the way of peace in helping to bring solace to the troubled region of Nigeria. Nigerians in Belgium have come out en masse today to sue for peace. But more importantly, as you can see from the colourful participation of our Belgian friends, we are not alone in suing and demanding peace. We are supported by a formidable army of Peace Lords!
In suing for peace for Nigeria, we are reminded of the mess that high handed military operations have left behind in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and other forgotten war zones. In suing for peace for Nigeria, we are encouraged by the success of peace agitations in Hong Kong, we draw inspiration from Aung San Suu Ki’s Burma and the many marches of Martin Luther King, particularly the one in Selma.
In closing let us draw strength in the legacy left behind by the man, after whom this bridge was named: Nelson Mandela. A bridge binds two separate land masses together. The bridge that binds us is our common humanity and peace is needed to keep it intact. I wish us peace. I wish Nigeria peace and finally and indeed most importantly, we wish the good but traumatised everyday Nigerian, priceless peace.
spoken to them.”The CPS takes all instances of abuse against older people extremely seriously, and
To date, the council has spent more than $1.5 million on the investigation and associated lawsuits. The county’s investigation is, according to interim administrator Rusty Burns, essentially finished although an investigation by the state grand jury reportedly remains active. By law, the grand jury is quiet. The county is stingy with details of what fruit its efforts have borne other than changes in a few policies that could have been changed without the extra expense and indigestion to taxpayers.