By Owei Lakemfa
PROTOCOLS.
It is not usual to write on foreign affairs. Many do not see the correlation between domestic and global affairs.
But things are changing rapidly in the universe. Just a few weeks again, the world tilted towards a global conflagration. We all could have been endangered; indeed, we all are endangered.
We are tilted towards a unipolar world where all countries are told there is just one super power at whose shrine we all must bow and worship.
Also, the level of intolerance is so much that people are being targeted for not falling in line. For instance, if you were to point out that the on-going genocide in the Palestine must be stopped, you can be accused and indeed, found guilty of anti-Semitism.
So, foreign relations is being reduced to a religion in which non-believers are treated as devils, and believers who raise eye brows are pronounced heretics.
This is why books like Towards Effective World Security by Uchenna Nwankwo which we are here to present, are important for human development.
In Africa, we say, a tree does not make a forest. But it is beginning to seem that President Donald Trump, is a single tree that constitutes a forest. The situation in the United Nations, UN in which a single Permanent Member of the Security Council can dictate to the entire world, is not fundamentally different.
We also say, an individual does not constitute a community. But in global politics, an individual is acting as if he is the world.
I believe that the world, like the Brazilian President Lula Da Silva said this week, does not need an emperor. But we have to unite and ensure this. The world had an emperor in Adolf Hitler; there can always be another. Eternal vigilance and unity, is the price we have to pay.
Do not be taken in by all the talk about democracy. If humanity were to believe in democracy, it would have started with the democratization of the UN. Did the UN Charter not state that all Member countries are equal?
Specifically, the veto is a violation of Article 2 of the UN Charter which states that: “The Organisation is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.”
In other words, the Permanent Member syndrome should decades ago, have become history.
My positions above can be disputed. But what cannot be, is that all humanity would be affected in case of a global conflict.
As for my dear country, Nigeria, without ambassadors in other countries, it is like a bird flying with one wing. In deed, under this government, we might be flying blindly in the global space.
I wish us, a successful public presentation of this new gift from Mr. Uchenna Nwankwo.
*Chairman’s Opening Remarks at the Launch of the book, Towards Effective World Security, 12/07/2025
AUTHOR’S WELCOME ADDRESS AND REMARKS AT THE LAUNCH OF THE BOOK TOWARDS EFFECTIVE WORLD SECURITY, IN ABUJA, July 12, 2025
By
Uchenna Nwankwo
Mr. Chairman, Special Guests of Honour, Special Guests, distinguished Ladies & Gentlemen, it is with great joy and a deep sense of honour that I welcome you all to this presentation of my new book, Towards Effective World Security. I thank you most graciously for making out time and energy towards contributing to a successful presentation of this work. Some friends think that I should have concentrated energy in addressing Nigeria’s hydra-headed problems given the country’s seeming lack of direction. Apparently, they think that the subject of international cooperation and peaceful coexistence should be left to citizens from the better settled sections of the world to grapple with. But I do not see it that way. Although a good and effective world security system or organisation must be able to save the big powers from themselves, it must equally protect the poor and weak nations in every way possible. In effect, in my own thinking, a more secure world order must be able to enhance the plight of all nations in unexpected ways. The truth of the matter is that many world events have since my infancy drawn me irresistibly to world and international issues, which is not to say that I am not equally concerned with local Nigerian or Third World issues. But I see that some of the solutions to Third World issues would come from a viable world security organisation.
As already stated, my interest in world and international issues was stirred very early in my childhood years. It all started with the launch of Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union or Russia in 1957. Sputnik 1 was therefore the world’s first artificial Earth satellite. Although it was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit on the 4th of October 1957, what seeped or filtered into my little village in Southeast Nigeria by 1958 was that the Russians had hung their own moon in space. The news was like the thunderbolt itself. Everybody in the village was startled by this seeming esoteric piece of news. How could anybody or people contemplate or come up with such feat? Many of us hadn’t even seen electric poles that delivered street light overhead in the urban centres. So, it was not a matter of contemplating how many poles the Russians must have joined together to hoist a moon beyond the clouds! Subsequently, most of us young children of the time spent a good deal of our moonlight play time lying on our backs on the sands, gazing into the firmament and speculating as to which of the larger or brighter stars was the Russian moon.
Alongside the story of the Russian moon came that of Russia’s awesome socioeconomic system, which was tagged communism, with the exaggerations that accompanied it. They made our ears tingle. Indeed, these stories forced the consciousness of Russia’s existence as a country upon us kids even before some of us learnt about the existence of other countries outside our immediate environment. For me, I became aware of the existence of Russia as a place or country even before that of the almighty Great Britain which was our colonial overlord at the time. Then as I grew up came the updates of Russia’s exploits, contributions and great achievements in the Second World War, the Korean war of the early fifties, its role in the Vietnam wars, its impactful role in the decolonization of Africa, Indochina, etc. Indeed, Russia had played the role of the eternal tormentor of professional or classical colonialists as well as a conscientious liberator in world history. I am not a communist by the way, but I could see that Russia was fired by the zeal and determination to defend cherished causes, creed and ideology everywhere. And I noted that even America’s Hollywood acknowledged Russia’s ethical latitude, greatness and no-nonsense attitude in its 1988 famous movie known as ‘Red Heat’, produced by Warner Brothers. That was just before the Soviet Union crumbled.
But the Russia we talk about was a conglomerate of nations under what was then known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union for shorts) of which today’s Russia Federation, Ukraine, Georgia and a few others formed its core group of nations. Indeed, the Russia Federation and Ukraine formed the innermost core of the union, with Ukraine often referred to as little Russia. They were like twin brothers. But today, they are very wide apart. In fact, they are now at each other’s throat and have been at war with each other for nearly three and a half years. The great achievements these two had made in the past, working together as a country, are now like a great mistake that has turned around to mock their disunity today. Faceoffs amongst siblings are normal. But when they become protracted, remorseless and unending, it becomes truly ugly and dirty. Our prayer for the twosome is that they should immediately realise the damage they are doing to each other and their glorious past and resolve to stop the ugly dance in the marketplace and return to civility and good neighbourliness.
Please, do not get me wrong, ladies and gentlemen. The book we launch here today is not about Russia and its immediate neighbours per se. As its title indicates, the book is about the safeguard of nations and the achievement of peace and unity in the world at large as the United Nations Organisation totters to the point of going the way of the League of Nations. However, one thing is clear. We cannot really and seriously discuss world peace and the erection of institutions to deal with such when one of the pillars of the international community and a major power like the Russia Federation, which should be one of the nations at the forefront of the search for progress in the world is busy fighting a female war at home. For the mere absence of Russia from such discussion is capable of breeding paralysis and bringing greater corruption to the system and the nascent movement for change. So, we have to deal with that war situation first; for the Russo-Ukraine conflict is itself an obstacle to world peace and progress, and could degenerate further.
My viewpoint is that it is high time Russia gave up on its war with Ukraine, which is a big distraction to the whole world, and re-join the progressive movement for world peace, unity and development. We know that it has a great contribution to make in this direction. I trust that Russia will live up to that expectation. Anyway, as the author, it is not my task to talk about the book Towards Effective World Security today. For this occasion, we have the book reviewer to do so; to critique the work as he deems fit. So, it is about time for me to give him space to deal with the inevitable. For I am equally itching to hear him out; to know what he thinks of my humble effort. On that note, Ladies and Gentlemen, let me once again welcome you all to this occasion and wish us a good afternoon.
I thank you everybody!
Uchenna Nwankwo 12th July 2025
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