A cleric, Rev. Fr. Stephen Akpe has urged Nigerians to pray for the return of total peace in the country as the world marks International Day for Peace.
Akpe, an Assistant Coordinator, Justice Development and Peace Commission, Catholic Archdiocese of Jos made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Jos.
NAN reports that the UN General Assembly had in 1981 declared every Sept. 21 as International Day for Peace.
The cleric said as much as other human strategies were deployed to ensure lasting peace returned to conflict areas of the country, the need for all and sundry to turn to God in prayer was highly imperative.
He added that “human efforts have been deployed to ensure peace is achieved in all parts of Nigeria, particularly in conflict areas.
“But I feel we are also missing the point; it is high time we go before our creator in total submission and lay our challenges.
“So, I call on our political and religious leaders, Christians and Muslims alike, and even the traditional idol worshipers to first of all return to God in prayers.
“We need to pray, and I assure you we will begin to see the handwork of our creator.”
Akpe added that the aspect of prayers in our search for lasting peace in the country should not be neglected, as the nation needed God’s intervention at the moment.
The cleric challenged governments at all levels to live up to expectation by ensuring that effective capacity building was done at the grassroots, as that would be the panacea to the insecurity being experienced in the country.
According to him, government must adopt deliberate and aggressive policies that will
uplift both the economic and social status of the people living in local communities.
“Government should not isolate itself from this, it must take it as a responsibility to ensure that the capacity of people in rural communities in terms of human security is adequately improved.
“When people are empowered economically, socially and otherwise, the likelihood that they will pick up arms against each other at the slightest provocation will be very minimal.
‘“But, when there is so much hunger, poverty, squalor and unemployment in the society, people tend to become very violent,” Akpe said.
The cleric urged the government to evolve policies that would make the economy favourable; the one that would enable the private sector to create employment for the teeming graduates piling on a daily basis.
He further urged the government to introduce some skills acquisition programmes that would accommodate the unemployable youths in the country, so as to reduce restiveness in the society.
Akpe challenged governments at all levels to be prudent in spending state resources and ensure monies were allocated into sectors that would empower youths and women with a view of reducing poverty and enthroning peace in the society.
The 2016 International Day for Peace has “The Sustainable Development Goals: Building Blocks for Peace’’ as its theme.
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