Abuja
Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Barr Solomon Selcap Dalung, has reiterated the call for peace-building, especially among the youths, saying there couldn’t be meaningful development without peace.
Dalung made the call yesterday in Jos, Plateau state, during the opening ceremony of a 3-day national peace-building and conflict resolution workshop, organised by the federal government for youth leaders in the North Central region.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr. Adesola Olusade, the minister charged the youths on alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, urging them to build trust and confidence to bring about peace and resolution of any conflict in the society.
“Every one of us must work deliberately to ensure sustainable peace in our great country, Nigeria, to enable us realise our dream of becoming a developed country in the nearest future,” he said.
“Sustainable development cannot take place in atmosphere of chaos and violence, we must give peace a chance for us to benefit from our collective struggle which brought this democratic dispensation,” he stressed.
Earlier, Plateau state governor, Simon Bako Lalong, blamed the immoral activities among youths on inadequate parental care, religious fanaticism, cult, drug abuse, unemployment, political manipulations, cyber crime, as epidemics eating up the Nigerian youth.
The governor, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Hon. Rufus Bature, said the APC led government was committed to “giving the youth its place of relevance in the nation, so they could contribute their own quota to national development”.
In his remarks, the National Commandant of Peace Corps of Nigeria, Amb (Dr.) Dickson Akoh, attributed insecurity, militancy, robbery political thuggery, criminality, financial crimes and terrorism to the rate of unemployment in the country.
Akoh therefore urged the federal government to continue the workshop on peace-building across the country, saying this will educate youths more on the need to promote the culture of peace and the act of non violence.
“Every year, over 900,000 Nigerian youths graduate from both secondary and tertiary institutions. According to a United Nations report, less than 10 per cent of these youths have access to gainful employment,” he decried.
