Violence is an act that is intended to hurt or kill somebody. It could be physical, political, emotional (sexual) and even spiritual depending on the environment you are and where and when it is happening to you. But conflict related violence could be traced back to war times and the question is how do we put an end to the continuous existence of violence in our society?
At one time or the other, we have secretly and openly wished that we will not encounter any type of violence but more often than not, we have seen and heard of violence here and there. During the just concluded elections in Nigeria, we heard of how hundreds of Nigerians were killed by fellow Nigerians in order to achieve their personal political ambitions. Also, some years back, there was crisis in a school and a good number of young girls were battered and defiled by some young men, probably fellow students, who didn’t care about the after effects of what they were doing to the young women and themselves as well.
For any society to develop, it must be a violence free one. Every now and then, violent crises erupt in Nigeria, so how do we hope to achieve the development that we are seeking for? It is a fact that during any crisis, there is bound to be destruction of lives and properties, which run into millions of naira sometimes.
Just recently, before the elections, an opinion sampling was organised in which the question: “Would you involve yourself in violence during the upcoming election?” was asked. Many of the respondents said no, stating that violence does not solve any problem. One respondent specifically said that there is no way violence could be beneficial. But I am surprised that many people still died despite all pleas to resist violence. We claim to know the danger of violence but we end up having ourselves involved and endangered by it.
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