Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says that dialogue and not any form of violence, will help resolve conflicts in Africa.
Obasanjo said that in order to inspire youth to be in the forefront of promoting peace rather than being exploited to carry out acts of violence throughout the continent, deliberate efforts to create and instill a culture of peace and security in them must be intensified now more than ever.
Obasanjo stated this at a youth leadership symposium with the theme “Opportunities for Peace: Roles of the Youths in Conflict Prevention in Africa,” held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta.
Obasanjo explained that rather than pushing forward the narratives of hatred, pulling him down, and negative attitudes that brew conflicts and then violence, Africa must begin to embrace love and tolerance and see peace as not negotiable for economic growth and prosperity.
He said that the youth, whom he stressed are no longer leaders of tomorrow but today, must stand firmly against conflicts in any part of Africa and be agents of peace rather than being lured or used as agents of destabilisation.
“We must begin to bring up our youths in the culture of peace and security. The chances are where we have culture of love, we will have peace,” he said.
“The first thing to do is to inculcate in the youths the ingredients of peace which is love and fellowship.
“Look at the attributes that God gave us to have life of stability, life of peace, they are as I mentioned, kindness, mercy and forgiveness.
“All of these attributes are professed by God and he shared same with us to make life pleasant for us. But when we build negative attitudes, pull him down, then there will be problem.
“The youth must be at the vanguard of pursuing peace, they must be able to persuade those who believe that gun and violence is the way out of conflicts to have a rethink, the way out is conversation and dialogue.
“We have had our issues here during civil war; we killed ourselves mercilessly, destroyed our best facilities but we still came back to the roundtable to get the challenge resolve.”
The programme was put together by Centre for Human Security and Dialogue in collaboration with the Institute for African Culture and International Understanding, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library.
Peter Okebukola, former executive secretary of the NUC, emphasised Obasanjo’s commitment to African youths’ pivotal role in achieving peace across the continent.
NAN reports that the programme was part of activities lined up for the 87th birthday of the former President coming up on Tuesday, March 5.