Only Peace Can Promote Development – Rev Wushishi

.As Jos hosts inter-faith peace dialogue 

BY CHAMBERLAIN ODEY, JOS – The Secretary General, Plateau State Christian Council of Nigeria (CCN), Reverend (Dr) Yakubu Wushishi says meaningful development in the country can only be achieved in an atmosphere of peace.

Speaking at a two-day event tagged “Peace building and trauma healing Project” in Jos the Plateau State capital, Rev Wushishi said that “for any development to be achieved, peace must not only be maintained, but sustained.”

According to him, “peace is a necessary commodity and a sure foundation for progress to be achieved in any aspect of human endeavour”.

Also speaking, Chairperson of the occasion and wife of Bauchi State governor, Hajiya Hadiza Abubakar commended the organizers for conceiving and successfully supervising preparations leading to the successful hosting of the event. 

She reiterated that “the main objective of the conference is to foster peace and cohesion in areas affected by ethnic and religious crises”, noting that, “engaging in Inter-religious dialogue and relationship building” remains crucial in any development process.

In his remarks, Director General, Plateau Peace Building Agency (PPBA), Mr Joseph Lengman, in espousing the theme and subject of the day, acknowledged that there is still much to be done in terms of peace building in Plateau and beyond.

Lengman, who was the Guest Speaker, said; “the new and emerging conflict trends in our state have the potential to undermine or jeopardize the modest achievements recorded in our post conflict peace building process.”

Inter-faith dialogue is the platform for repairing the broken social fabric of society and initiating peace building measures based on cross-border faith interaction. 

With the participants drawn from the 19 Northern states, the two-day forum, declared open by Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, aims at broad-based peace building initiatives, as part of efforts to ameliorate the trauma most residents in Northern Nigeria have been putting up with due to several years of communal violence and turbulence within the region. 

The conference holding at Hotel Samaritan, Little Rayfield, Jos, ends on Wednesday, September 20, 2017 with a communique to be issued on its resolutions.