Brother Ike Udogu:
I agree with your general sentiment about next steps for South Sudan, to wit: "there are no winners or losers in this... 'senseless' war." However, the last thing you want to recommend to the Government and people of South Sudan is the " 'GOWAN' (sic) doctrine," by which I suppose you're referring to the post-civil war Nigerian Government's so-called "no victor, no vanquished" and "the Three Rs" (reintegration, reconstruction and rehabilitation" mantras.
As you know very well, what was implemented was the "reintegration" part and not rehabilitation or reconstruction. One of the biggest lies in Nigerian history books is that Gen. Gowon prosecuted the 1967-1970 war "to keep Nigeria one." It was the opposite--read the actual "Convening Orders" and "Operational Orders" issued by the military high command; and also ask or read the writings of the dramatis personae in that tragedy. Truthfully, the Igbos/Biafrans are where they are today DESPITE the policies and efforts of every Nigerian government since 1970 to oppose or renege on the other two Rs, all of which have also failed to "solve the Igbo problem."
If you look deeply, you'll find eerily similar "doctrines" on the ground in South Sudan--some ethnic groups are "the problem" and some political actors in Juba are consumed by "the need to finally solve this problem" so that the rest of the country can move forward. No, the "Gowon doctrine", let alone Nigeria's over all experience of nation-building, will turn South Sudan into another epileptic mini-giant that will continue to convulse tragically at the precipice until the foreseeable future.
Best wishes,
Okey
On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 10:49 AM, <udoguei@appstate.edu> wrote:
SUNDAY MUSING
Politics defined simplistically as the struggle for power is by its very nature
conflictive in all societies. To this end, I would like to join others in
APPLAUDING our brothers and sisters in South Sudan, the Central African
Republic, African Union and other interlocutors for resolving both crises.
Conflict of any kind in the continent will retard our inspiring development
agenda critical for mitigating such clashes.
Writing on the role of women in African societies, Kah Walla, a female
presidential candidate in the 2011 presidential elections in Cameroon, summed up
the situation thus: "A little-known fact about Africa is that in many
sub-Saharan traditions, women step up to the plate when the community has
exhausted other solutions [particularly when men fail to govern effectively]
(Newsweek, September 26, 2011, p. 28; see The Developing World: Critical Issues
in Politics and Society, p. xviii).
CONGRATULATIONS AND THANK YOU MADAM CATHERINE SAMBA-PANZA, INTERIM PRESIDENT OF
THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC, FOR STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE!
Now that the factions in South Sudan have signed a ceasefire, I urge them to
invoke what I term "THE GOWAN DOCTRINE." Our leaders in this conflict should be
magnanimous—for there are no winners or losers in this war—and embrace one
another while apologizing to the country and Africa for the innocent lives lost
as a result of this "senseless" war.
IKE UDOGU
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Okey Iheduru, PhD
You can access some of my papers on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) at: http://ssrn.com/author=2131462.
You can access some of my papers on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) at: http://ssrn.com/author=2131462.
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
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