American civil rights activist Martin Luther King writes that:

“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy, instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.”

“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

As if reechoing Martin Luther King’s assertion in a different way, Albert Einstein, in one of his numerous essays writes that:

“Heroism by order, senseless violence, and all the pestilent nonsense that does by the name of patriotism -how I hate them! War seems to me a mean, contemptible thing: I would rather be hacked in pieces than take part in such an abominable business.”

The above words bring certain things to question on our existence as a state that is eternally bellicose and ready to declare war on any dissenting group within the nation.

A nation that uses its military to police its people, in a democratic regime, is a country that might carve in on itself, resulting in its untimely death because violence doesn’t, and have never, solved any problem.

Instead, violence creates a vicious and continuous circle of hate, dissent and legitimacy to agitations of a group –that would otherwise not have gotten much interest if government had sought a less violent and unconstitutional way.

Violence, in whatever form, throughout history has never solved anything. Instead, it institutionalizes palpable peace that is akin to that of a grave yard.

For instance: the unrest in the Niger Delta region has gone on as far back as 1966 and even resulted, although underreported, in the first declaration of a republic within Nigeria and a twelve day gun battle between civilian forces, led by Issac Adaka Boro, and the Nigerian security force.

Till tomorrow, the agitation in that region is still on and seems to grow each year in a sophisticated style that is increasingly spiced by technology and an in-depth understanding of military strategy and propaganda. One begins to wonder if the problems of the region would have been resolved long ago if government had used dialogue and common sense.

The recent excursion of the Nigeria security forces in Aba, Abia state, where about six members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) were killed, leaves a bad taste in the mouth, a taste reminiscent of the ones several Nigerians in Odi, Bayelsa state, Ogoni land, Zaki biam and the Northeast, where human rights have been raped by both sides of the divide, can relate to.

This is not to say that the nature, circumstance and amounts of damages in the events listed above are alike, far from it! Instead, it serves to illustrate how successive Nigerian government continuously pursue the path of hate and sowing same seeds of hate in Nigerians, who inadvertently, or not, pass it on to their children.

Thus it becomes a never ending line of hate passed on from one generation to the next, and to the next.

Repeatedly, the Nigerian state turns its citizen against her by her over the top and continuous use of violence to solve matters that could have easily been resolve through diplomacy and dispute resolution.

While the Buhari administration’s trial of Nnamdi Kanu is a gigantic show of shame, the use of force to resolve the matter of secession can best be likened to a big bully at a primary school playground.

In sane societies, where there is value for human rights, the government would have utilized well trained riot police, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse and quell civil disobedience, and not outright use of life ammo; laying waste breadwinners and loved ones of several people –who will go on to be resentful of the Nigerian state because a loved one was shot dead for no just or explainable cause.

Even though times have changed and the narratives of early Biafra agitators have changed with it, however, the presidency should realize that nothing is as easily passed on as negative feelings and that years to come the stories that will be told will not start with how the protesters violated a law banning all forms of protest in the city, it will, instead, start with how the military, on the order of government, shot and killed ‘peaceful protesters’ and end with how several reprisal attacks and counter attacks occurred, claiming lots of innocent lives. And it doesn’t matter how much exaggeration or falsehood are in the story, sensation and sentiment always win.

This will, invariably, result in a perpetual hate of the Nigeria state, a feeling that will be passed on from one generation to the next, unless government realizes that violence doesn’t heal, instead it breaks and tears apart.

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Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Opinion article written by Nwankwo Emeka J- writer, thinker and wordsmith.