On the face value alone, it would appear the meaning of personal names were unimportant. On the contrary, consider the following three Biblical pairs of names: Abram and Abraham, Sarai and Sarah, Jacob and Israel.
According to one Jewish/Hebrew authority, Abram means exalted father and Abraham, father of multitude or father of many generations. Sarai means princely, and Sarah, queen of princes or mother of princes (These two pairs of names were taken from the Bible book of Genesis 17:5 and Genesis 17:15, respectively). While Jacob means deceiver, Israel means God’s people (Genesis 32:28). All the events experienced later reflected the true meaning of their newer names. (This is in consonance with one of the teachings in psychology that people tend to act to reflect what they are labelled. That is they unconsciously work for the fulfillment of prophesies of their prophets. In addition, the prophets contribute their quota by unknowingly setting the necessary conditions for the achievement of their expectations).
The advice here is we should be selective in the kind of names we give our children. The meaning of names is important.
Many times, in a child’s ownership contention, there is need to identify the genuine father or mother. Or for a child to identify his father so he may be convinced or even forced to bear the responsibility of/for his child’s care. In some other criminal occasions, the identification of the owner of blood samples collected at the scene of crime is important. What is done to unravel the tangle is to employ very sophisticated, expensive DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) analysis. (DNA is an organelle located in the nucleus of a cell. It controls cell division and characteristics). DNA is like a finger print. No two persons have the same DNA pattern. But the degree of DNA relatedness is used to solve the puzzles raised.
When the DNA pattern of a child closely matches that of a father or mother it proves ownership. A culprit is identified when his blood DNA pattern matches the blood DNA pattern found on the body of the murdered. You won’t spend huge sum of hard-earned salary to pursue irrelevant laboratory investigations. Correct answers to the question of ownership are important.
Similarly, object ownership identification or determination is minimized by many. Yet the whole private property laws stand on this ground. Where it non-existent individual would kill themselves over property ownership.
Nothing on earth generates as much tension and hatred as the ambiguity of boundary lines. From East to West, North to South, Nigerians are killing themselves. Why? Disagreement over boundary lines. One side shouted: “we are the owner of the land”. The other side responded quickly: “no, you are not, we are”. Arguments and counter arguments followed. Rationality was thrown to the winds. Then fight broke out. One ethnic group fights against another and one community against another. All because of ownership ambiguity. Yet some say determination of true ownership (of land) is unimportant.
At the international level, it is still the same. There is an ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia. Vladimir Putin sees Ukraine as an extension of Russian but Volodymyr Zelensky sees Ukraine as independent sovereign state free from external control. Isreal and Hamas are uncomfortable with each other for sharing common boundary. Each want the boundary shifted far away from them unilaterally in the false belief that doing so guarantees greater security. Iraq once invaded Kuwait in vain because of disagreement over boundary lines. There is a festering sore of tension between China and Taiwan for the same reason. The world’s mediation role is not yielding satisfactory result. When will these troubles end? No one can say.
It helps no one to follow the bad examples of the aforementioned nations in conflict resolution. But the case of Nigeria and Cameroon offers a ray of hope/light at the end of a dark tunnel. No doubt, clear boundary definition and demarcation are a must if we want disputes nibbed at the buds. Nigeria and Cameroon acted wisely. When there was disagreement (between the two nations) over Bakassi peninsula, Cameroon decided to take refuge in the law. She resisted helping herself. Instead, she filed a suit against Nigeria at the International Court of Justice. The court gave her judgement based on the balance of credible evidence. “The court decided that the boundary was delimited by the Aglo-German Agreement of 11 March 1913 (Arts.xviii-xx) and the sovereignty over the Bakassi peninsula lay with Cameroon”. That was the way one observer put it.
However, part of the decision also favoured Nigeria. The two countries were asked yo withdraw immediately without condition their administration and military or police forces wherever they were wrongly stationed in line with the judgement. Cameroon and Nigeria accepted the decision in good faith and peace was restored. This was how total war was averted between the two nations. For this singular act, may God bless the two head of states/governments then, General Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Paul Biya of Cameroon.
Nigerians became foreigners instantly. Yes, foreigners were what we became and what we are in Bakassi. This is what some choose to call non-indigenous, non-aborigines and settlers. Call us what you will, they all have nearly the same meaning. We are aliens in someone else’s land. We can live a normal life in Bakassi so long as we keep the peace following the customs, traditions and constitution of Cameroon. Surely, we will run into problems if we try to impose our home made customs, tradition and constitution on them. They don’t expect us to operate in their country with our own laws and constitution. After all, there is the saying that “if you are in Rome act like the Romans”.
Here in Nigeria, rather than follow the admirable example of Cameroon and Nigeria, some who have made money their God, those egoists who consider their personal interest far above the interest of the public, are dead to the feelings and emotions of others, those without any iota of respect (value) for human life, the deviants and the miscreants, the malevolent meddlers and interlopers, the pathological law breakers of Nigeria, including the supporting, unthinking echolalias of this world, who, though over 50 years, (according to the new youth policy (2019) a youth is someone or citizens of Nigeria who is between 18 and 29 years or according to the African Youth Charter, youths are people between 15 and 35 years of age) still call themselves youth, beat the drums of war every now and then, trying to impose visitors rules on their hospitable hosts. Such unreasonable men, women and youths need not be told that no one group in this world possesses the monopoly of violence. War is collaterally damaging. It is not something you want happen.
It is time for the true youth to be patient with dialogue, justice, peace and the rule of law. No other forces can beat the combination of these in the resolution of conflicts. When there is boundary dispute or land ownership disagreement, there are a lot of avenues open to you. You can reach out to the states and FGN land and survey department. You can find out if there were colonial historical records, treaties and maps regarding the disputed land. You can dig into the Supreme Court decisions (and precedents) for the same reason. You can consult the National Boundary Commission, and other sources known to you for help.
Before you complete this process of enquiry, the gray areas surrounding the boundary lines between many different communities will have become clearer. Currently, I am engaged in this process which I believe is part of the collaborative effort to end frequent land disputes. Warmongers must not be allowed to win (succeed).
Objective definition of the true owners of a piece of land is a sine -qua-non for peace.
Edogun is a teacher and columnist with First Glory World School, Benin City.
