Trolling social media over a period of time has shown me that there are numerous calls for violent change in Nigeria — individuals who have taken it upon themselves to propagate this school of thought. Anytime I think of the aftermath of violent change in Nigeria, images of Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan flash through my mind.
I think of the innocent lives that will be lost, the devastation that will spread throughout the land. I think of the pain and the bloodshed, and I know that violence will just cause more problems for us.
Why violence fails
The positive effects of violent change are more or less illusions. They never last. After a short period of time, the negative effects begin to rise — and they do so with a grudge. Violent change has no underlying principle or idea other than to kill or overthrow. And after this, what next? Infighting begins. The revolutions are hijacked by the mediocre and the power-hungry, who are only thinking about their pockets.
In a very diverse society as ours, where various different groups are clamouring for a thousand and one different interests, how possible will it be to control the use of violence once it breaks out? How can you draw the line between righteous and unrighteous killing? What rules will guide the violence, and how will it be protected from hijacking?
I believe that violence cannot solve our problems as a nation. It has no governing ideology. Rather, it will worsen the situation. Martin Luther King put it plainly: the choice is not between violence and nonviolence, but between nonviolence and nonexistence. Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.
Before you conclude — imagine Somalia. The pain. The poverty. That is what we are being invited toward.