Former President Goodluck Jonathan, on Tuesday, revealed the cause of conflicts on the African continent.
Jonathan, Nigeria’s president from 2010 to 2015 said the struggle for power is the major cause of conflicts on the continent.
He stated this at a programme organized by the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) and partners in commemoration of the International Day of Peace in Abuja.
The former president, who was also honoured as a Fellow of the institute, added that there is little technology can do to make right the fraudulent Nigerian electoral processes as it could be manipulated by corrupt human minds.
The former Nigerian leader, while speaking at the event, said, “Actually, 10 top countries are in conflict globally. Three of them are in sub-Saharan Africa. And quite several countries around us, including us, are in one form of conflict or the other.
“And when you look at what causes conflict in Africa, most cases is struggle for leadership, contestation for power. And that is the main cause of conflict.
“Sometimes, when you go through a society, you can tell all kinds of stories. But by the time you do a proper analysis and dig deep, you know that most causes of conflict are leadership struggles. That is why I’m only worried about my country Nigeria.”
Jonathan, chair of the programme, asserted that the idea that politics is dirty, is wrong, stressing that those who play are responsible for the dirty state of politics in Nigeria and African as a whole.
He said: “People say politics is a dirty game. The way we play our politics is the way we want to play it.
“Remember (Olusegun) Obasanjo, the former president, recently made a statement that politics is not dirty, but the people that play the politics come to play politics with their dirty minds and dirty hearts. And dirty character.
“And that is why people say politics is dirty. And in that case, we must all begin to think differently. We must cultivate the culture of peace,” he added.
According to him, Nigerians and Africans, in general, must begin to develop a culture of peace, noting that peace should be part of their everyday life.
“Until we get to that level where we develop the culture of peace in this country, we will always have political conflicts in our election.
“And without us strengthening that effort, without us developing that culture of testing a nation peacefully, we will always be in conflict in Africa and Nigeria.”
Jonathan, who to date, remains the only Nigerian president to hand over to the opposition party after he was defeated at the 2015 general elections, referenced the recently conducted governorship election in Edo State, noting that there was more tension after the election than before, due to the feelings that some things were not done rightly.
He argued that technology can not solve Nigeria’s electoral process, fearing that the technology would be manipulated if the human mind is corrupt.
“Here in Nigeria, we talk about technology. Without the human mind ready to do what is right, if we bring the technology, they will manipulate it,” he said.
