Lorine Emenike
Relief International Africa, an advocate for peace in the Niger Delta region have honoured peace crusaders and peace ambassadors in Port Harcourt.
The lead director of Relief International Africa, Comrade Green Isaac said that the event which was supposed to take place in line with the world peace day celebration on the 21st of September 2019 to commemorate this year’s international day of peace but was moved forward to today for certain reasons.
He said the program with the theme “Absence of Peace in Niger Delta: How it Affects Human Rights” was convened to discuss the general issue of peace and other disturbances in the Niger Delta region that affect human rights.
He said the event was put together to brainstorm on how peace can be restored in the Niger Delta and what needs to be done with respect to human right.
“The impact of our advocacies and discussions over the past years has been very great because we have been able to identify a crop of leaders who will take the region to the next level.
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“And of course, you can see, the leaders that we have recognized as peace crusaders and peace ambassadors today are leaders who have contributed immensely to their communities, who believe in the norm of change, who believe that in changing the society, one must make sacrifices.
“We will keep talking, we will keep discussing, I pray that people will change from their old ways. Leaders who are holding public offices should try to be accountable, our youths should try to ask questions and that is the only way the society can change for better”
The chairman of the occasion, Ambassador Prince Chituru said that peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony.
“In the absence of hostility and violence in a social sense, Peace is commonly used to mean lack of conflict. Where there is no conflict there is no peace, and such as war there is no freedom between individuals”
He encouraged citizens to create the need to always make peace with neighbors.
The lead speaker at the event, Aruchukwu Paul, said ” for us to have peace there must be justice.
“Places like Niger Delta, for us to restore peace in the region, there must be special stand-ups and efforts must be made to inject capital into the region and this efforts must be a consensus of the ruling class.
“The nitty-gritty for all these things to be worked out will be a matter of time. We may subject ourselves to trial and error. It is the time Nigerians say enough is enough”
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