By Uche Udude

As the world groan over the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, scholars from the Department of History and International Studies, Lagos State University, have offered informed explanation of the causes of the war and the solutions.

The department’s scholars and other experts gave the solutions in a symposium entitled, “Unpacking the Ukraine Conundrum: Analysis of the Russian-Ukrainian War.”

Experts and scholars of international relations, both in the department and outside the department, were invited to table their analysis on the stipulated topic. It was a stimulating occasion where the vissisitudes traced to the war were analysed and put in proper perspective.

One of the key Speakers at the symposium is Dr. Dapo Thomas.

In his paper, entitled “Russo-Krainian War: The Wasteland Agenda of an angry Emperor,” Dr. Thomas said of ownership and control of nuclear weapons: “Proliferation may be dangerous but there is need for fresh justification for preventing the non-nuclear states from having their own nuclear weapons.”

Summary of the paper presented by Dr Dapo Thomas is as follows:

Topic: Russo-Krainian War: The Wasteland Agenda of an angry Emperor,”

1. Introduction: On
   Thursday, February 24,2022, Russia attacked Ukraine, a country with a history that dates back to the 11th and 12th centuries.
3. What is Wasteland
   Agenda: This is my coinage for the carnage going on in Kyiv. It means a deliberate, methodical, premeditated and scientific extermination and decimation of all physical, biological and physiological entities of a defined geographical and political territory by the army of an adversary with machines of War. What are these machines of War?: Tanks, aircraft, poison gas, armoured vehicles, heavy machine guns, cluster munitions, vacuum bombs and airships.

1. Who is this Emperor here? : Vladimir Putin. Why? : he has never been happy with the bifurcation of the Soviet Union and dreams of re-creating a new Soviet or Russian Empire under the guise of “ I am the victim “ “perceptive reality “.

1. I am adopting two
   approaches for my presentation: (a) Interpretive (b) prescriptive
   Under the Interpretive approach, I will discuss the following:

Causes of War

(a) Historical Excuse – 11&12th centuries incorporated into Russian Empire- 1793
Federated into Russia in 1918
German invasion in-1941
Retaken by USSR in- 1944
Ukraine/Crimea joined together – 1954
Ukrainian independence- 1991(Dec 5)
Crimean war-2014.

(b) Ideological Rationalization – Don’t join NATO/EU

(c) Personality/ identity Crisis

Carl Rogers ( American psychologist): The personality or “self” is an organized, consistent pattern of perception of the “I” or “Me” that lies at the heart of an individual’s experiences.

PRESCRIPTIVE:

Concept of Align or Perish •Warning to all non-aligned States – Align now or be perished soon.

If the objective of the United Nations Security Council is to maintain or to ensure global security and peace, Russia’s action/ attack on Ukraine has signposted the failure of that objective.

So, on what moral or political plank is Russia being retained as a Permanent Member of the UNSC? I propose Russia’s removal from the UNSC having lost the moral and professional authority to be a disciplined nation. In its place, I will suggest India for these reasons:
a) It is the largest democracy in the world.

b) It has a very stable polity that has NEVER been disrupted since 1947.

c) It is also a major power with very disciplined and liberal foreign policy.

•Scrap UNSC, Maintain only the UN General Assembly.

•Cancel the Veto power and adopt majority vote system or the concept of “Status Parity”

• To avoid or prevent “ Wasteland Mission”, intervention by other states not involved in a war should be activated 2nd or 3rd day of attack irrespective of the status of the states involved.

•Punitive actions like denuclearization demilitarization heavy fines should be imposed on any aggressor nation.

•Death toll for War Crime investigation, trial and punishment should be specified. I am suggesting figure range of 100-150 deaths.
•I am advocating for zero-nuclear weapon system. And if this is not acceptable to the major powers, then let every state protect its country according to the “available capability “. Putin raising his nuclear forces to high alert is a clear demonstration that madness is not restricted to Iran, Syria and any other perceived belligerent state.

• What is the purpose of allowing some states to possess nuclear weapons and denying others from doing same?

Proliferation may be dangerous but there is need for fresh justification for preventing the non-nuclear states from having their own nuclear weapons. The old excuse of not wanting some madmen in Asia or Europe to be in possession of deadly and destructive weapons like nuclear weapons, is no longer tenable . Today, some madmen also wear suits not only jalamia.