By Michael Mark
Bauchi
The First Lady of Bauchi State, Hajia Hadiza Abubakar, has established peace clubs in 10 public schools within the state capital.
This is part of her efforts to inculcate peaceful co-existence in the society.
Hajia Abubakar, who is also the initiator of Sustainable Women Economic Empowerment and Peace Initiative (B-SWEEP), disclosed this during theB-SWEEP peace clubs interactive forum held at Banquet hall, Government House, Bauchi.
She explained that the establishment of the clubs were born out of the workshop on peace building and peace education where stakeholders were sensitized on creating more awareness on the necessity for peaceful co-existence as well as highlighting the consequences of falling into the menace of violence.
The governor’s wife said that the creation of the peace clubs would help to tackle the serious insecurity being experience in Nigeria and North East in particular.
She said, “The initiative is geared towards catching the students young by inculcating into them the culture of peaceful co-existence and principles of peace education using the established clubs that a have been formed to be an instrument for conflict resolution. This enable the students to actively participate in fostering peace, love and togetherness to their colleagues towards building a stable society.
“The formation of these clubs was aimed at creating a peaceful and harmonious academic platform at various school levels where students of different backgrounds live independently.”
Hajia Abubakar said that the peace club interactive forum was organized to create a forum for the students to showcase their talents in peace development process particularly in the area of essay writing, spoken words and poems.
She said, “To the attending schools and coordinators, this programme will no doubt provide an excellent opportunity for you to exchange information and views to provide sustainable peace and cohesion in your schools to avert ethnic and religious crises, thereby re-building confidence and relationships more fully and effectively”.
In his address, Governor of Bauchi State, Mohammed Abubakar, represented by his Special Adviser on Youth Mobilization, Ghali Abdulhamid, described peace building among members of any community as very essential because it brings solidarity and cohesion among the people.
He said, “The need for peace among our various communities cannot be overemphasized because it is only when there is peace that we can develop and make progress. It is therefore imperative for us to cultivate the habit of tolerance and respect for one another so that we can live peacefully with one another.
“There is no better way of making things permanent than inculcating it in the minds of our children. I therefore commend the efforts of B-SWEEP for its foresight in trying to face the challenges of insecurity in this manner. This’s will go along way in consolidating the achievements we made in facing the insecurity.”
According to him, the peaceful coexistence in Bauchi State is as a result of multiple approach to peace resolutions by the present administration, saying, “this is why the state becomes second home to many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who flee their homes in some states of the North East and others as a result of the insurgency and other ethnic-religious conflicts,” he said.