Report on ASETO Symposium on Conditions for Sustainable Development

The need to institutionalize equity and justice has again been stressed as a condition for peaceful co-existence, harmony and sustainable development.

This was the consensus of participants at a one-day Symposium organized by a non-governmental organization, ASETO (African Agency for an enhanced Socio-Ethics and Traditional Order).

The symposium was held at the organization’s office, Sanngo Ibadan as parts of the activities marking this year’s World Peace Day and Nigeria’s 49th Independence Anniversary.

Held under the theme: Exploring the Peace Prospects for National Development, the symposium examined various issues pertaining to the theme and how to build a nation devoid of violent rancour and sufferings - as  well as how the world could be made better for the majority.

While declaring the symposium open, the convener, Mr Jare Ajayi explained that in recent years, particularly since the bombing of some landmarks in America, the world has been made more perilous through the acts of terrorism, suicide bombing, kidnapping  (as is happening in the Nigeria’s Niger Delta etc) as well as sundry other acts that detract from human well being.

“As we mark this year’s World Peace Day which comes up around the time Nigeria is marking its 49th year of nationhood, we feel that it is a good time to examine those issues that have been of serious concern at both the national and the global communities”.

Ajayi submitted that good governance and fairplay have a lot to do in preventing the occurrence of violent conflicts.

“Nations where justice and fair-play reign, nations where conflicts are equitably resolved and nations where good governance prevails hardly experience intractable violent conflicts”.

Participants included Mrs Akin Bello, Dele Ogunsola, Sola Akande, Biola Layoonu and Sunny Okoh.

Others were Dr Jide Ololajulo, Mr Freeman Okosun, Engr. Sanya Jegede, Mr Femi Ajao and Mr Oye Oyewo.

Read a full report in the next edition of Oloye News.

Contributing immediately after the opening remark by Aseto’s Executive Director, Mr. Akin Bello said that his understanding of peace is not necessarily an absence of conflict. “Conflict is part of the natural order of life. What should concern us is how to manage this conflict”

Bello who is chairman, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Oyo State Chapter, went on to state that conflicts within the family, at home, within the state, within nations and in the world as a whole.

“What will ensure peace is equitable resolution of conflicts” Bello concluded.

Dele Ogunsola, a media practitioner, said that raising peace issue against the backdrop of Nigeria’s independence anniversary was apt on the part of ASETO, the organizer of the symposium. Taking off from where Ajayi and Bello stopped, he said that peace appears elusive because most countries fail to be equitable and fair in their handling of conflicts.

 He said that most nations of the world have to contend with many violent conflicts because of their failure to institutionalize equity, justice and good governance. He claimed that these countries will experience peace and sustainable development the moment they allow these ideas/concepts to reign supreme. He mentioned Nigeria as an example.

A publisher, Sola Akande and children educator said that average citizens are ready to live exemplary life “if their leaders show good examples”. He cited instances of when Nigerian citizens took a cue from a few of their leaders that lived literally above board and governed well. “The situation is now this bad because such good leaders did not stay long enough in power for their impact to endure for long”. He then talked about having institutions that will make it difficult for everyone – leaders and the led – to misbehave.

An anthropology lecturer at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, Dr Jide Ololajulo blamed indiscipline for most of what induces conflicts. Indiscipline breeds impunity. He maintained that failure of government to mete out requisite punishment to offenders and law breakers make others to indulge in unwholesome behaviours. “What happened to those who did it yesterday?” they would ask.

He stated that hypocrisy on the part of those in government has been responsible for various campaigns on value re-orientation to have effect.

“They say one thing and act differently” he contended.

Lamenting that redemption with adults is almost hopeless, Sunny Okoh, a writer of children literature and teacher said that his interaction with children would show the extent of the degeneration of the situation. “If you hear a child of 12 or 15 talks about her desire, you would be amazed at what they say. It is materialism galore. Yet it is in these children that our hope for redemption lies. It is incumbent on us adults therefore to re-orientate ourselves and give these youths a better sense of direction”.

Biola Layonu, a media practitioner and publisher sees a kind of paradox in what is responsible for the condition of the people in his country, Nigeria. “While politicians take advantage of poverty to exploit the people, many hapless adults too often overreach themselves.” He cited the example of a parent who earns say N30,000 (an equivalent of 250 US dollars) per month yet sends his child to a private university where as much as N500,000 (an equivalent of 10,000 USD) is to be paid per semester. This penchant to want to ‘act like the Joneses even when one does not have the same wherewithal with Jone  “is contributing in no small measure to the mess in the society today.”

To Sanya Jegede, a machinist, the current adults in Nigeria are a wasted generation because they have virtually turned the positive value they grew up with to the dogs. Almost resignedly, Jegede lamented that hope of redemption is almost gone for the current generation. He then suggested that for the world to know peace, “there is the need to review our inordinate materialism and to put in check our craze for voracious acquisition’.

But Jide Ololajulo cautioned against writing off the present generation. While agreeing with Jegede and Okoh on the need for a paradigm shift, Jide said that the situation is not as hopeless as the earlier speakers seem to maintain. On the submission of Sola Akande and Ajayi for the importance of building and strengthening institutions, Ololajulo insisted that it is individuals who make institutions. “Institutions will work to the extent to which we want it to work. As such, it is the people who should check themselves and mend their ways…. What is wrong with us is that many of us are afraid to die, whereas many would to die for others to live a meaningful life”.

Although a scholar, Ololajulo enjoined as many people as possible not to sit on the fence when it comes to participation in political activities. “We should take active parts.”

Reacting to the observation by Akande, Okosun, Ajayi and Ogunsola that the political scene in many countries is violent prone, Jide said that if one holds too tight to life, “he or she would lose it”.

Akin Bello came in here to say that in politics, politicians don’t kill “they only remove obstacles!”  This submission drew guffaws from other participants. They observed that the submission graphically depicts happenings in democracy deficient societies where power is seized by any means.

The tendency by many power seekers to want to obtain this power by all means possible – whether foul or fair – “is responsible for the greater threat to peace just as it is a precipitator of instability, social upheavals and violent conflicts in different parts of the globe.”

Oye Oyewo, a Computer Analyst and Femi Ajao, a pharmacist as well as Bello saw state policies that keep impoverishing the people as “a deliberate act to keep people down with a view to making them vulnerable. That way, it would be easy for politicians to manipulate them for their own ends.”

In rounding off, participants urged the organizer, ASETO, to expand the scope of the ‘educating confab’. They summed the day’s outing on a note of ‘participation and vigilance.’  The time to sit on the sideline and watch is over. Everyone must show interest in how matters that will have a bearing on his/her life are being handled.