Stakeholders Urge Youths To Embrace Peace For Sustainable Democracy

Civil society group, Peace for Free Advocacy Initiative, has appealed to the youths in  the country to shun fake news and violence especially during the elections and accept results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to sustain our democracy.

Speaking at a peace building and advocacy event in Abuja, yesterday, the guest lecturer, from the Department of Mass Communication, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Anthony Igyuve, said God has blessed our country with numerous mineral resources and human capital to develop it, saying that Nigerians should come together irrespective religion or tribe to build Nigeria.

Earlier, the convener of Peace For Free Lecture Series, Chris Oge Kalu harped on the need for peace in the country after the 2023 general elections.

He said the Peace for Free Lecture Series is a nationwide highly interactive peace building effort, which had been held in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria including: Delta, Lagos, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Plateau, Borno states respectfully, and climaxed, yesterday, in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

“We are pleased that this event in the FCT, will be the final lap of our Lecture series with the theme: Sustainable Peace Beyond Elections that was launched in February 2023. And hopefully will herald our Campus Storming for Peace and Unity proposed to hold in tertiary schools across the states of Nigeria in the coming months,” he said.

“Our advocacy outreach is intended to engage citizens, particularly the youths in a free discussion to educate them on the tenets of democratic practices, and to attempt to clearly explain perceived uncertainties in our polity that could lead to violent disruptions and truncation of our fragile democracy beyond the 2023 general elections. We believe it’s our responsibility to promote tolerance, peace and unity amongst Nigerians to ensure the ultimate consummation and maturity of the democratic process,” he added.

The executive secretary of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Anthony Ojukwu, who was represented by the deputy director, Human Rights Monitoring Mrs Titalayo Samuel, said the commission is optimistic that all relevant stakeholders have assembled at the event to discuss and exchange ideas on the important issue of peace building in the country.