CEPAN trains Plateau youths on peace building

The Centre for Peace Advancement of Nigeria (CEPAN) in their quest for peace in various communities in the State has targeted 150 Youth to be trained on how to manage conflict and violent extremism amongs themselves across the 17 Local Government in Plateau State.

The training which involve youths from three local governments from Plateau Central senatorial zone was attended by youths from Bokkos, Mangu and Pankshin local government areas respectively.

Program manager of CEPAN Mr. Ephraim Emah said the CEPAN is a non-government and non-profit making organization that focuses on building peace and resolving conflict in communities.The program is to engaged the youth to cement what we have started.

He said: “The vision of CEPAN is to have a society where there is peace based on the justice, and harmony based on the people’s recognition of their strengths, and beauty of diversity based on sustainable development in communities, and our mission is to create peaceful communities by promoting peace building and development via dialogue, conciliation services, training, research and diseminating accurate and reliable information on peace and development.

“One of the reasons why we focused on the youth is because of the fact that we have some of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the North Eastern part of Nigeria in Plateau. In order to stop or avoid this people from recruiting our youth into violent extremism, there is an urgent need to educate them on this. And to strengthen local capacities for peace building, conflict prevention, mitigation, transformation and management.

“Our target is to train 150 youth, but now as I talk to you we are having over 170 registered participants because they were eager to be ambassadors of peace in their different communities. The main aims is to avoid violent extremism and radicalisation amongs youth in three LGEs of Bokkos, Mangu and Pankshin in Plateau Central Senatorial District.

Speaking on the theme: “Religion: A Source of Violent Extremism and a Resource Deradicalisation”, the keynote speaker, Senior Special Assistant to Plateau State Governor on religious matters Dr. Sumaye Hamza said, “Both Christian and Muslim preach peace, therefore, religion should be used as positive tool to resolved all the crisis we are witnesssing in Nigeria and Plateau State by using the Holy scripture we claimed to believe in, to preach peace and promote oneness, and tolerance of one anther without discrimination.

“Government should try to checkmates the types of messages preached by our religious leaders to their teeming members in making sure there are free of hate speeches that is capable of setting the entire Country on fire.

“Most of the crisis we are experiencing today in Nigeria is purely polititical, but the minds of Nigerians has been shifted towards religion as the main causes of our problem. The crisis has a political coloration and people, especially youth should be carefull in managing the situation. This is because, the Youth, Children, Women,and Ageing ones are more vulnerable”.

On the ways forward and recommendations, Sumaye said that they should be constant dailogue amongs the two main religious practice we have in Nigeria, adding that they should also be common activity established to unites or brings them together as one body.

“We should go back to our old ways of doing things; when we respected our value and culture, when a child respected not only his parents but those who were of his parent’s age, teachers in the School, and even respected one another irrespective of the religion background. That is the only way we could achieved this Peace”, she added.

In his opening remarks, the Chairman of Mangu LGE Hon. Haruna Danjuma said we are one; no one should use religion as a yardstick to divide us as a people.

On behave of the Chairman, the District Head of Bokkos, HRM Monday Adanchin urged the youth to put the lessions learnt from the  program into work so they could replicate them in their various communities.

Meanwhile, the CEPAN has been working in the State for over Four years. And the Organisation seeks to promote collaborative action by communities and social actors in the three LGEs to prevent youth engement in exreme violent and radical behaviours that would be detrimental to the peace and development in communities.

 

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