Today people all over the world celebrate International Day of Peace being 21th of September, where the need for peaceful co-existence becomes paramount in all the lectures and preaches.
In Nigeria, there is the need for the states and the residents to live peacefully with their neighbors. But how peaceful is the Nigerian country?
For the past few years now the country has not seen any peace. The peaceful co-existence has been threatened in so many ways and in all the States of the federation.
The unity of the country has been seriously threatened because of injustice, marginalization, political inequality, administrative lapses including corruption, and imbalance, and all gave rise to agitations for freedom from almost all the component tribes.
The worst that is trying to break up the nation is the importation of foreigners to take over people’s ancestral lands by force in the name of open grazing and to enforce one religion on the rest of Nigerians exposes the porosity of our unity.
To this end hundreds of thousands of Nigerians had lost their lives and hundreds of communities were displaced by Boko Haram sect and the Fulani herders.
The case of communal clashes has been an age long threat to our peaceful co-existence with our neighbors. Thousands of people had been killed and many communities lost their homes because of the activities of the bandits.
The implication is that all the above affect developments. There are killings everywhere and no one is safe in the country any longer.
The above anomalies and more moved the Rivers State Deputy Governor Dr. (Mrs) Ipalibo Banigo in her goodwill message from Government House in Port-Harcourt yesterday 20th September to commemorate the year 2021 International Day of Peace to reiterate the need for the residents in the State to live peacefully with their neighbors to attract more developmental projects.
According to her;
“Progress and development cannot thrive in an atmosphere of bitterness and rancor, it therefore behooves on all residents to keep the peace at all times to fast track the development agenda of the Governor Wike led administration”.
Recall that 21st of every September is celebrated Worldwide as the International Day of Peace, and the theme for this year is “Recovering Better for an Equitable and Sustainable World”.
From today onwards one would believe that Nigerians and their Administrators would imbibe the Spirit of oneness, equitable distribution of our resources, even development, Respect for other people’s Religion and Cultural Heritage to enthrone peaceful co-existence with other tribes.
