AS reported: Sergey Lavrov , Russia’s foreign minister, against the backdrop of Moscow’s “brutal assault” on Ukraine, hit many of the Kremlin’s well- worn talking points in the last -year, including NATO’s eastward expansion and the”shameful”and criminal misadventures of Washington” in Yugoslavia, Libya, and Iraq – and delivered Russia’s vision for a new multipolar world. He was further reported to have called on member states to “ revive the culture of dialogue, respect the purposes and principles of the UN charter” and sovereign equality of all states “, adding ,” this is what we all signed onto when we ratified the charter of the United Nations.” The war in Ukraine must be stopped. And the only way to achieve this is to profoundly appraise the above remarks of Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia. Before the war in Ukraine, had the same allegations and judgements been made, then against the US and NATO in other quarters than Russia? The issue of unipolarity is a viral concern, being now worked against by many nations, and is indeed the principal principle being rejected in the proposals for democratisation of the United Nations, the world parliament, the reforms of the Security Council, permanent membership of the Security Council for an African nation, a new sovereign world currency independent of the US Dollar, etc.
The democratic credentials of the United Nations are grossly questioned, with the United States of America being alleged, indeed adjudged, of hegemonic control of the instructions of the United Nations. And the global governance is perceived as grossly unipolar, with the G77 and China making serious efforts at a transition to a multipolar world order or global governance. However, the history of the United Nations reveals the hitherto necessity and inevitability of the United States hegemony. And, unless we undertake a dispassionate analysis and appreciation of the past relationships of the United Nations and the United States of America, we may not properly envision the path constituting breakthroughs to the conjunction of convoluted multicrises now confronting global governance and national governance The United States has since inception, or thereabouts of the United Nations contributed 25 percent in financing the budget of the United Nations, as the strongest national economy in the world. The US dollar has, for this reason, been the official international currency. These facts cannot be denied, nor reasonably regretted, notwithstanding the present desirability of transitioning to a multipolar world order, or global governance in the face of the recent economic empowerment of many other nations, chief among which is China. With the countries of the European Union, typified by France, Russia, India, Brazil, South Africa and many others teaming up with China in the quest for a rapid transition to a multipolar global governance or world order, and democratisation of the United Nations, it is only reasonable to embark on reforms of the United Nations. No doubt; but we must not be confrontational in our approach. A mediatory or conciliatory approach is necessary, is the sine qua non in order not to further disrupt global governance.
Those on each side of the two divides must empathize with those on the other side. This is the only path to the solution to the war in Ukraine. We can only continue to put either Russia or United States of America to shame, in the present global circumstances, to the perils of all humanity. The United States of America is too important to the whole world not to be treasured. So also, the U.S.S.R, and now Russia, had or has been a great asset to the whole of humanity, as a dialectical check on the international capitalist manipulations of the United States of America. We must not forget at this critical epoch that the United States of America gave us, humanity, the Constitutional entrenchment of the fundamental human rights, fought its civil over the practical abolition of slavery, which lord Mansfield, in England, had many decades before judicially adjudicated to be unlawful, evil.
Do we forget in the heat of the moment President Abraham Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy and the others so like? Or, were Hegel, Karl Marx, Engels, Lenin and such others evil? What is playing out is the natural evolution of dialectical materialism, at this epochal juncture of today’s world; the fallouts of the respective counteracting forces of capitalism and communism, towards an ultimate rational definite centrist ideology prevailing. Centrist ideology is welfarism; the greatest good for the highest possible number of the people. On the other hand, unbridled capitalism breeds inequalities, corruption, crimines and criminalities, and, generally, sufferings. Gorbachev’s glasnost and pereistroika, described by Putin as the worst crime against humanity, was not caused by Putin, and is the rationale for the war in Ukraine. Gorbachev confessed- the truth should guide us out of this conuldrum- that he was procured, as a young man, and guided by the West, to become the president of the U.S.S.R, in order to execute the disintegration of the U.S.S.R, the Union.
We must first remove the ills of capitalism and representative democracy before we improve communism. We should desist from labelling Putin/ Russia or Biden/ United States as evil. Capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, feudalism, slavery, hegemony, racism, etc, have been practised by all races of humanity. All humanity is guilty. We must all join hands in attempting to exorcise evils in the governance and cultures of all humanity.
- Akande writes in via akandeponle01@gmail.com
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