By Noah Ocheni, Lokoja
The Actionaid Nigeria Resilience Programme Coordinator, Anicetus Atakpu on Wednesday in Lokoja described promotion of Culture as a panacea to insurgency, armed robbery, kidnapping and banditry ravaging the country.
Atakpu who made the call on Wednesday in Lokoja at a cultural peace fiesta in commemoration of the 2021 global peace day, called on the Government to device a new structural approach to promote Nigeria culture in a bid to put an end to criminality.
He lamented that Nigeria Culture has been relegated to the background, stressing the need to promote harmonious cohabitation through culture if the country must overcome the growing spate of insecurity bedevelling the nation today.
He said ”Tribalism has played a very strong role in promoting violence extremism and building conflicts in Nigeria. The most recent is the farmers, herders conflict, that has led to so many deaths which we are out to finding the solution to the problem.”
Culture according to him is a good way of building harmony, and peaceful coexistence adding, “We have been having this peaceful fiesta for the past three years, and we have come to restructure it. Rather than just gather youths to play, dance, we need to pass a message with it.”
”This year we have launch the cultural peace fiesta demonstrating our cultural diversity and making our youths and our teaming population understand that we have diversity in culture, and our looks but we are still one. We are passing a message that will make people appreciate the oneness in us despite our cultural diversity.”
“ If the government could come up with a new model towards promoting our culture, the issue of Kidnapping, insurgency, armed robbery will be a thing is the past”.
In her speech, Actionaid Nigeria country Director, Ene Obi who was represented by the organization Director, Social Mobilization Mr
Adewale Adeduntan traced the neglect of Nigeria culture to the importation of foreign culture in the society.
According to her, ”Am not in any way antagonizing foreign culture in our system, but I am bold to say that some of this culture brought to our country is drilled with hypocrasy, hatred, violence and many more that does not reflect Nigeria Culture. Our culture preaches peace, and peace we must maintain if we want to move forward”
Earlier in her opening remarks, the Executive Director, Participation Initiative for Behavioral Change in Development, (PIBCID), Halima Oiza Sadiq admitted that cultural diversity has a great role to play in promoting peace and harmonious coexistence looking at the ethnic diversity of Kogi State.
“As such, the 2021 peace fiesta (Cultural Fiesta) is an occasion for us as peace ambassadors from diverse ethnic groups, to reflect on how aspects of this culture including music, dance, attire, craft and cultural expression can be exploited to enrich the lives of the people of Kogi and our country as a whole.
The cultural peace fiesta to mark the 2021 International peace day with the theme ” Promoting harmonious cohabitation through culture” was organised by Actionaid Nigeria, in collaboration with the Participation Initiative for Behavioral Change in Development, (PIBCID), and funding from Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund, (GCERF).
