The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) and its partners are aiming to address the different social factors fueling violent conflicts and sustaining tensions among social groups in the country.
The Director General of the IPCR, Dr Joseph Ochogwu, disclosed this while addressing the press in Abuja as part of activities to mark this year’s International Day of Peace.
The 2024 edition of the Peace Day Commemoration, with the theme: “Cultivating a Culture of Peace”, focuses on how a culture of peace, unity, dialogue, and reconciliation can be entrenched in communities across the world.
He noted that the world is faced with numerous challenges, including economic downturn, inequity, natural disasters, weak institutions, poor governance, marginalization and violent conflicts, adding that these issues have adversely affected nations globally, including Nigeria.
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“Nigeria has over time experienced a huge loss of lives and humanitarian crises resulting from diverse forms of violent conflicts recorded across communities. Hence, the need to build a culture of peace and resilience in our communities.
“The collaboration between our institutions for International Peace Day Commemoration aims at addressing different social factors fueling violent conflicts and sustaining tensions among social groups, not excluding poverty, unemployment, inequality and socio-political marginalization. This is in view of accomplishing the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 in Nigeria,” he said.
While noting that no one entity could build peace in a huge country like Nigeria, he said the partnering agencies have independently and collaboratively been engaging in peace sensitization, peace education, humanitarian intervention and other programmes that encourage the inclusion of women, youths and other vulnerable groups in peacebuilding.
On his part, Rafiu Lawal, the Executive Director of Building Blocks for Peace Foundation (BBFORPEACE), said Nigeria’s burgeoning youth population presents a demographic dividend that could be leveraged for sustainable peace and economic prosperity.
“To do this, we must concretely address the challenges that have held us back including the exclusionary conditions of young people. We must ensure that our young men and young women are meaningfully engaged and their representation increased in the political, social and economic architecture of society.
“We must incentivize youth and women-led peacebuilding and address the stereotypes against young people and women. We must increase our rewards for those people doing good and contributing to the peace and economic growth of this country,” he said.
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