SIR: It is not usual to write on foreign affairs. Many do not see the correlation between domestic and global affairs. But things are changing rapidly in the universe. Just a few weeks ago, the world tilted towards a global conflagration. We all could have been endangered; indeed, we all are endangered.
We are tilted towards a unipolar world where all countries are told there is just one super power at whose shrine we all must bow and worship. Also, the level of intolerance is so much that people are being targeted for not falling in line. For instance, if you were to point out that the on-going genocide in the Palestine must be stopped, you can be accused and indeed, found guilty of anti-Semitism.
So, foreign relations is being reduced to a religion in which non-believers are treated as devils, and believers who raise eye brows are pronounced heretics.
This is why books like Towards Effective World Security by Uchenna Nwankwo, which we are here to present, are important for human development. In Africa, we say, a tree does not make a forest. But it is beginning to seem that President Donald Trump, is a single tree that constitutes a forest. The situation in the United Nations, UN in which a single Permanent Member of the Security Council can dictate to the entire world, is not fundamentally different.
We also say, an individual does not constitute a community. But in global politics, an individual is acting as if he is the world. I believe that the world, like the Brazilian President Lula Da Silva said this week, does not need an emperor. But we have to unite and ensure this. The world had an emperor in Adolf Hitler; there can always be another. Eternal vigilance and unity, is the price we have to pay.
Do not be taken in by all the talk about democracy. If humanity were to believe in democracy, it would have started with the democratisation of the UN. Did the UN Charter not state that all Member countries are equal?
Specifically, the veto is a violation of Article 2 of the UN Charter which states that: “The Organisation is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.”
In other words, the Permanent Member syndrome should decades ago, have become history.My positions above can be disputed. But what cannot be, is that all humanity would be affected in case of a global conflict.
As for my dear country, Nigeria, without ambassadors in other countries, it is like a bird flying with one wing. In deed, under this government, we might be flying blindly in the global space.
• Owei Lakemfa delivered this as Chairman’s Opening Remarks at the launch of the book, Towards Effective World Security, authored by Mr. Uchenna Nwankwo.
