Am I a sissy after all?

Last night, my eyes filled with tears as I considered the timely intervention of Western allied forces that temporarily saved the people of Libya from further humiliation by their leader.

I hated the coordinated deadly attacks from US, Britain and France, for the simple reason that it could happen to any other sovereign nation, including my beloved, fumbling country; the principle of national sovereignty requires internal affairs of nations to remain their internal affairs, not subject to foreign interference. Still I kept talking to myself: “Self? Isn’t Libya a different kettle of fish? Look at the sequence of events: citizens protest peacefully, Ghadafi attacks with violence, the people rebel and defend themselves and Ghadafi up-scales it into a war. He vows to show no mercy against the same people that he is supposed to govern and protect. And he moves men and tanks to crush the last stronghold of protest against his one-man rule. Self? Don’t you think this intervention is justified on humanitarian grounds? Imagine this: If Nigerians rise up tomorrow to protest bad rule from our bunch of vicious and avaricious politicians, and “they” mobilize the army and the police to crush “us”, wouldn’t we cry out for external assistance, and joyfully welcome such assistance?”

I wiped my tears from my face and uttered a silent prayer for the success of the allied forces.

What about national sovereignty, the devil’s advocate inside me persisted. When I woke up this morning, I found my answer to the little devil. We are members of the one race created by God and we live in an interdependent world. We must recognize this and therefore act for the public good when bad people use their positions of authority within artificially constructed national boundaries to humiliate and oppress human persons within these boundaries. My people have a saying: Let us chase away the hawk after which we advise the chick against straying too far into the bush.

Author

  • Ogbuagu Bob Anikwe, a veteran journalist and message development specialist, is now a community journalism advocate and publisher of Enugu Metro. Contact him on any of the channels below.

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