Alex Enumah in Abuja
The Federal Government has said it is confident that the threat of violent extremism in Nigeria and Africa will be met with equal but strategic force of peace-building education.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Khadija Abba Ibrahim, stated this on Monday in Abuja at the opening session of the Basic Conflict Management Course (BCMC) and the unveiling of the National Peace Academy of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR).
Ibrahim, who was represented by her Special Adviser, Prof. Femi Adegbulu, expressed joy at the formal inauguration of the academy and commended the initiative as both necessary and timely in the light of the numerous violent conflicts plaguing the country.
While congratulating the institute and the pioneer participants for being part of the historic project, she said, “I also believe that the vision and mission behind this National Peace Academy is well placed in view of the present day peace and security challenges currently affecting Nigeria and Africa as a whole”.
She therefore enjoined the participants to take advantage of the class and also to make the best use of networking which according to her is a valuable step in partnering for peace.
Earlier, Director-General, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, (IPCR), Prof. Oshita Oshita, stated that it is imperative to use education as a channel for mainstreaming peacebuilding and promoting the prevention, mitigation and peaceful resolution of conflict disorders in Nigeria.
He argued that it will be impossible to attain socio-economic and political development without peace, because conditions of peace serve as the fertilizer upon which development takes rise and flourish.
Oshita said, “The Institute strongly believes that the provision of training services by the National Peace Academy at both basic and advanced levels, when fully deployed, will help strategic and grassroots people to create awareness about the importance of peace and how to build and sustain it as well as how to peacefully resolve conflicts as first responders”.
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