Think Diplomacy

The word diplomacy has for quite sometimes been used in various contexts to meaning different things. First, it is sometimes used as a synonym for foreign policy. For example, when we say Nigerian foreign policy in Africa. Second, at times it is interchanged with negotiation as when one speaks of resolving a conflict through careful and patient diplomacy. Third, at other times, it is used to mean the Foreign Service itself. Fourth, there is a popular usage of the word to mean special skill, tact, care or politeness and in an unpleasant sense to mean duplicity and guile. Hence someone can be described as being diplomatic. Last but not the least, the word has been used to connote the totality of the functions of diplomats.

The different usage of the concept ‘diplomacy’ above are not wrong in their own right. However, we shall concern ourselves with the center-piece of this article as regard the call for humanity to ‘Think Diplomacy’. Since this is not an academic essay, I will not bore you with scholarly definitions of diplomacy. Nevertheless, it is pertinent to introduce you to the words of Keith Hamilton and Richard Langhorne who rightly define diplomacy as “a peaceful conduct of relations among political entities, their principals and accredited agents.” Political entities here encompasses state and non-state actors at local, national, regional and international level.

The World

After World War II, there emerged a search for world peace and security through collective security. This birthed the United Nations Organization in 1945, which have kept relative peace since Cold War era. The relative peace the world is enjoying today is because world leaders like Woodraw Wilson sat down and thought about diplomacy not war. War has never brought peace, but diplomacy has brought peace throughout history. From Westphalian era to Aemrican War of Independence, from the French revolution to the Bolshevick Revolution, from Napoleonic Europe to German Otto Von Bismarck days, were all wars and conflicts that ended at the table of diplomacy and not by blood and iron. Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have been avoided if only we gave diplomacy a chance. This is why humanity must first think diplomacy before taken any action or reaction either in the Middle East, Korean Peninsula, South East Asia or Africa.

Nigeria

Arise o patriots and think diplomacy

Arise o patriots and speak with the voice of peace.

Arise o patriots and write with the pen of peace

Arise o patriots and walk the path of peace

Arise o patriots…!!!

Nigeria my country is going through a tough time. As patriots, it is our individual and collective duty to proffer solutions and not aggravate the situations with our words and actions. There are many conflicts in the land, Boko Haram, Militancy in the Niger Delta, Fulani Herdsmen in the Middle Belt, and now IPOB. Apart from “Boko Haram”, I believe diplomacy is the most viable way to finding a lasting solution to these conflicts, particularly the current unrest in the country as a result of clashes between Nigerian Army and IPOB in the Operation Python Dance II.

Fellow patriots, this is not the time to point accusing fingers at who is wrong and who is right. There are enough blames to go for everyone. But we must not be consumed by primordial ethnic, regional and religious differences and forget our root as human before any identity. Let us think diplomacy and give peace a chance. The lives of over 3million Nigerians that died during the Civil War in 1967 would have been avoided if only we hearken unto the voice of diplomacy. If the problems that led to the war are still with us today, it means that war cannot solve any problem. It will at best postpone it.

I urge our leaders to come to the negotiation table and address the root causes of the IPOB agitation and the likes. The root causes are but not limited to corruption, poverty, underdevelopment, unemployment, impunity, and injustice. There is a popular saying that “a hungry man is an angry man”. This is the fate of millions of Nigerians, especially the jobless youths. Our government must be legitimate not only in legality but more importantly in performance. Basic infrastructures such as electricity, good roads, water, health facilities, education, and employment opportunities must be provided as part of preventive diplomacy and peace building.

Finally, I would like to call on all Nigerians to think, say, and act towards peace. That is what differentiate us human from animals: the ability to be rational, the ability to think before action. Human being works by thinking, while animals work by instinct. Our animal instinct will direct us to give it all and fight to the finish considering the current tension in the country. But the human advantage we have is that, we can think and relate to the aftermath of a war.

Frantz Fanon once wrote “…we are nothing on earth if we are not slaves to a cause…”

Join me and be a slave to the cause of peace in Nigeria and the world at large.

Source: https://thinkdiplomacy./2017/09/18/think-diplomacy/