The East African country of Rwanda just marked the 30th anniversary of the genocide that ravaged that country in 1994. The occasion served as a reminder to the world that ethnic divisions and warfare do not augur well for any nation that desires growth and development.
The genocide started on April 6, 1994. About 800,000 people (mainly the minority Tutsi) were reportedly killed. The pogrom was orchestrated by common hatred and animosity between the majority Hutu and the minority Tutsi. The hatred came to a climax when the plane carrying the then Rwandan President, Juvenal Habyarimana, and his counterpart from Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira, was shot down by rebels suspected to be Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) led by Paul Kagame, the incumbent President. The two presidents who were Hutu, and every other person on board, died in that incident.
Shortly after the incident, some Hutu extremists launched a campaign of terror against the minority Tutsi. “Weed out the cockroaches” (kill the Tutsi) became their slogan as they established radio stations and newspapers to denigrate the Tutsi people. This led to the mass attack against the Tutsi. The worst is that even priests and nuns, who ordinarily should preach peace and forgiveness, joined the killing spree.
The crisis ended after about 100 days when the RPF, backed by the Ugandan army, invaded Kigali from Uganda. The RPF eventually succeeded in dislodging the then government in Kigali and took over power. Now, it is against the law for anyone to identify himself by his ethnic origin in Rwanda. They are all Rwandans, not Hutu or Tutsi. The country has relatively done well economically when compared to many other African countries and has remained peaceful. It has achieved a lot in human development index, urban planning, socio-economic transformation and transformation in digital technology. In the aviation industry, the country’s flag carrier, RwandAir, is doing relatively well.
That was why some Nigerian governors found it convenient to hold their three-day executive leadership retreat in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, in August 2023. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) organized the programme in partnership with the Nigerian Governors Forum. So far, it is not certain if they learnt any useful lesson from that retreat.
Like Rwanda, Nigeria suffered a debilitating civil war between 1967 and 1970. The war led to the death of over three million citizens, mainly the Igbo. The war was precipitated by ethnic mistrust among the major ethnic groups in the country. There was a military coup in 1966. The coup was tagged an Igbo coup and it led to a counter coup six months after. The pogrom against the Igbo, especially in the North, followed. This snowballed into the war which ended in January 1970.
Many decades after the war, our fault lines are still very visible. Even the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation programme instituted by the Yakubu Gowon regime after the war didn’t work. Ethnic mistrust, nepotism, killings and some other related crimes are yet to abate. Today, many farmers in the North-Central, especially Benue and Plateau states, hardly go to their farms because of incessant attacks by terrorists and herdsmen.
When Rwanda marked the silver jubilee anniversary of the genocide in 2019, Nigeria’s then Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who was one of the special guests, admonished leaders across different sections of the society to caution against acts that could cause disorder. But have our leaders adhered to Osinbajo’s admonition?
Today, Nigerian leaders think more of what will benefit their tribesmen than the entire country. Former President Muhammadu Buhari elevated nepotism to a very high level. Major political and security appointments were populated by people of his ethnic stock. In the current dispensation, the problem has persisted without due regard to the Federal Character principle as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Sadly, our fault lines have become more apparent than during the general election. Many politicians latch onto our divisions to achieve political gains. They stigmatise some ethnic groups and indulge in hate speech that causes more animosities and ethnic tension in the country. It was this type of thing that precipitated the Rwandan genocide.
We believe that there is every need now more than ever before to restructure the country. This will go a long way to achieve the desired peace and harmony and halt our precipitous march to Kigali.