• Uniport VC wants peacemakers as leaders
From Tony John, Port Harcourt
The former Commissioner of Finance and Economic Development, Enugu State, Adaonah Kene-Uyanwune, has called on the Federal Government to domesticate peace and security in our institutions.
She made the call at an event organized by the Centre for Peace and Security Studies (CPSS) of the University of Port Harcourt (Uniport) in collaboration with the Bayelsa State Ministry of Culture and Tourism Development to commemorate the 2023 International Day of Peace in Port Harcourt on Thursday.
Kene-Uyanwune, Managing Partner, ManMark Associates, who was decorated as Fellow, Centre for Peace and Security Studies, alongside Professor Benjamin Okaba, President, Ijaw National Congress (INC), Henry Agpodjan, Logistics Manager, Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG) and Leo Edochie, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Solotone Global Ventures Limited,
stated that without peace, it would be difficult to attain a sustainable development in the society.
The former commissioner in Enugu State, who is a criminologist by profession, charged the Federal Government to use the 2023 International Day of Peace to take action on how to tackle insecurity in the country.
Kene-Uyanwune: Addressing insecurity starts first with social reforms. It would start with domesticating peace, calling for negotiations, and dialogue within our local communities. It is very important to dialogue and engage our youths properly, empowering them. It is not enough to give our people palliative.
“The palliative government should actually call for education. It is creating an enabling environment in our communities for peace to thrive. It is engaging our custodians of culture, who are traditional rulers within our local communities and reengineering our societal norms and values where people pay the price of being recalcitrant, for us to understand that as Africans, we have a culture. And as Africans, that there are things that are reserved that we cannot do.
“It is very important that some of those things (norms and values) are being introduced in our academic institutions, in our primary school curriculums, norms, values of the society. There should be engagement of our youths, development and empowerment of our youths, inculcating a culture of hard work and discipline in our youths.
“There should be an understanding that this country belongs to all of us. And that is why today, the United Nations is asking what individual and collective efforts are we making to foster global peace. It is a charge for our mindset.”
On her investiture, she expressed: “The Fellow investiture to me is a charge to sustainable peace in my work environment, in any space I find myself in. It is a charge to diplomacy in dealing with things around me; it is a charge to campaign for peace within our local community.
“It is a charge to see how I can use this platform to have government, especially the Nigerian government to domesticate security, peace and culture in our different sub-nationals for enduring peace, for sustainable economic development and to accelerate a sustainable development goal, which the United Nations is preaching about.”
She, however, said the call on security is on government institutions, saying that the only way to establish and ensure security is by creating and domesticating security in institutions because of the rising insecurity in society.
Earlier, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, Professor Owunari Georgewill, declared that Nigeria and the rest of the world are in dire need of leaders who are peacemakers.
He said that the 2023 International Day of Peace called for collective commitment to championing peace in our society, adding that the journey of peace begins with every citizen.
“Our world needs leaders who are peacemakers so that there would be sustainable development. Let peace reign in Nigeria; let peace reign in Africa; let peace reign in the world.”
In his welcome address, the Director, Centre for Peace and Security Studies (CPSS), Professor Martin Ifeanacho, lamented that peace has been elusive in the world with crises ravaging the society.