There Is Need For Peace In Nigeria.
By Olusegun HOSEA .8th November, 2024.
There is need for everyone to co- exist in the country in respective of the location one finds himself. The need for peace in our nation is very germane as no tree can stand alone to make a forest. It’s against this backdrop that this little content seek to examine the importance of peace among the good people of the nations(Nigeria )with close reference to the people of Ondo State, more significantly during the period of election that will soon begin in the state. Peace can be seen as the state of absence of war and pandemonium in the society.
The progress and development in a particular location without any room of violence and intimidation of the people living in such environment can be classified as an environment that devour of rancor and problems.
In few weeks now, the whole world would bim their search light on Ondo State as the good people of the state will go into another election in electing new Governor that will rule them for another four years. In lieu of this, it’s expected of them to maintain peace and tranquility during and after the election.
However, according to the Former Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar GCFR, (RT) has advocated for peace to continue reigning in our nation. His thoughts on this subject matter was very powerful and it’s important for the people to ponder over his words and act upon it. According to him, he said he wants everyone to maintain peace.In a question put across to him that we listened to you and you said a lot. Now, what do we expect Nigerians to be expecting from you that we are having an election on this November 16th, 2024?
His response was that, Well, I want them to maintain peace. Because if there is no peace, there is no country and people cannot go about doing their business.So it is absolutely necessary that election is not war. So please, I want Nigerians, especially citizens, in Ondo State to go out and vote for a candidate of their choice. And then when the results are out, please they should maintain peace.
If there is anything, I found one thing is the declaration of the result,and if you are not satisfied, please let them go to the courts. And I want to use this opportunity to call on all other Nigerians to join hands in making peace in our country.
The response to this significant theme by the General Abdulsalam Abubakar shows that we Nigerians should find a way to allow peace to reign at all cost in our country if we want development and economic progress in the nation.
Today, the Northern part of the country has been witnessing insecurity due to the high rate of kidnapping, bandit and insurgency which have impacted the economy of the regions negatively as the Farmers could no longer go to their farm land to crops , the way and manner they use to do due to the fear of being kidnapped or killed by the criminals that do not value the life of human beings. All these evil vices are constant in our society due to lack of peace in the regions.
Coming down, to the south west of the country, the headers Farmers clashes, though was high before the advent of the Amotekun Corps in the regions where Farmers and even commuter could not navigate roads from one place to another because of the fear of evil men perpetrating this act of wickedness in our society. But since the establishment of the Corps, the society has witnessed relatively peace as Farmers can now go back to their farms to cultivate land. The establishment of the Amotekun Rangers across the eighteen local government in the state has improved the rate of security in the regions.
The minor challenges that are prevailing now is the issues of burglar, minor robbery and stealing of people’s domestics property in the society. But the good news, was that the security Agencies in the society are not relenting their efforts in ensuring that all these criminals are being arrested, paraded and charged them to Court after the conclusion of the preliminary investigation by the security Agencies. The Amotekun Corps in collaboration with other security Agencies were able to maintain law and order in the regions just because they wants peace to reign so that every body should go about doing their legitimate business.
Reasons For Peace.
The reasons for peace in the country is that it will fastrack development in the country. The infrastructural development like construction of the roads and other buildings of the business empire in the country can only be possible if there is peace. The so called Investors can not transact business in a society where there is violence and thuggery as these factors will put fear and tension in the heart of the investors.
In another development, why peace is important is that , government will be able to perform their constitutional duties by providing good Governance for the people. Commissioning of public projects like roads, schools and other public facilities that would bring development and progress to the people can only be possible in a society that is free of insecurity.
The government workers, business men, women and others private organization staff can only do business if there is peace in the country. Today the war going on in Ukraine and Israel -Gaza and Hamas where millions of souls have been killed, and activities paralyzed. This was the effect of the lack of peace. Although, the authorities concerned were trying their best if possible to ensure that they brought the situation in these countries to normal so that peace can reign as it were before in those communities.
Causes of Lack of Peace
However, some of the causes of the lack of peace in the society at time may be lack of tolerance among the people living in the same environment. The fight for the land most at time can also cause peace to elude the society. Poverty can be responsible for lack of peace in the society. A hungry man is an angry man. Hunger can lead people to go into stealing there by causing pandemonium in the society just like thief are terrorizing the community that lack Security. Fighting for boundaries amongst countries and communities are also some of the factors that are responsible for lack of peace in the society.As one strong country may want to Lodge power or show superiority over the weak country and this may spark war and disappearance of peace .
Election ringing can also responsible for the lack of peace in the society. In a situation where the Electoral empire decided to go biased during an election that people should be expecting them to do justice and refuse to announce the results that will reflect the wills of the electorates, such action may lead to violence and if it’s not well managed it can cause state of emergency in such environment.
How To Manage Peace
Having examine what peace is all about and the causes, it’s imperative to pay attention to the various ways of managing the subject. The citizens are looking up to government in providing good governance in all aspects of the human endeavors. Providing good security apparatus for the security Agencies to work with in order for them to combat menace of insecurity that is causing lack of peace in our society.
Also, government should ensure that all the boundaries dispute that are responsible for the causes of Lack of Peace in our society should be given accelerated attention by way of settling all those rifts.
Provision of dividends of democracy to the citizens that will make them comfortable should be one of the government top priority. While government should ensure that unemployment of the youth should be addressed by way of creating jobs for the Youths that were of employable age grade for the purpose of keeping them busy and engaging them with good jobs .
Since we all know that an idle hands is a Devil’s workshop. Let our government provide a public Information Communications Technology -ICT , centre training across the regions perhaps to the local government that would keep our timing youth busy. The ICT knowledge acquire from it, can be put to use by them in creating more jobs for themselves and inturn be an employer of labour to others Youth. By so doing, it’s important for peace to reign in our society.
Another, areas that government can also focus on is the areas of football economy of which if properly developed, it can engage all the youths in developing their passions in this sector. As most Nigerians youth do give their precious time and energy to this sector. So government should look inward by hanezing this golden opportunity to create peace among them.Although, government can not do it all. The private sector can also complement in this angle by way of creating more employment opportunities for the Youths too for the purpose of engaging them while putting their brains to work.
Conclusion, the peace and tranquility are very important for all of us to imbibe if actually we want progress and development in our society. The need for everyone to engage in tolerance and embrace one another is very germane. By so doing, the peace will are clamoring for will definitely come and we will hold our peace.
Olusegun Adeyemi HOSEA, is a Journalist , Public Relations Practitioner, Evaluator, Publicity Secretary-Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria–APBN Ondo State, Secretary OndoNUJ Digital Media-DM Chapel and Publisher Exponent News , writes from Akure Ondo State.
