The Institute of Peace and conflict Resolution (IPCR), has called on the state governors and other leaders to stem the spread of hate speech and falsehood in the country through grassroots campaign.

IPCR Director Prof. Oshita Oshita made the call on Thursday in Abuja at a media conference to mark the 2017 UN International Day of Peace in Nigeria.

The conference was jointly organised by IPCR, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) among others.

“Right now for the International Day of Peace we have all the state governments involved because governors have been enjoined to make state broadcast on the 21^st of September to mark this day.

“That is in recognition of the fact that the messages must use official platform to go down the line, apart from social media we know that grassroots is where some of this thing comes from.

“So we are using that means to reach the grassroots. We are not under illusion that we need to reach out to the people at the grassroots.

“Of course, we all know that this is something we must do because nobody knows who will be the next target,” he said.

Oshita said that there was also need to work with the Civil Society Organsations (CSOs) to reach out to the people at the grassroots to completely stem the trend.

“The spread of falsehood and hate speech via social media platform is creating and digging imaginary fault lines between people and communities, undermining human respect, safety and dignity across the country.

“With regards to what is happening about the hate speech, we have done a lot of background work to ensure that peace reign in all parts of the country.”

He said that the agency, apart from the early warning centre created to stem the agitation, had also engaged with CSOs and other stakeholders.

“They are the ones to help us reach some of the places we cannot reach as government agencies.

“We are not oblivious of the fact that we need to engage with them on what is happening and to prevent an escalation because if it thus happen we will be worse for it,” he said.

He urged Nigerians to be systematic in the way they go about achieving their desired change.

“But we want to use the medium to appeal to Nigerians that we all have to agree on the formula for whatever kind of change we want.

“Change is a legitimate thing and that is why the ruling party had it as its slogan, but change must be systematic it must be something that we all key into so that we know where we are heading,” he said.

Director General NEMA, Mustapha Maihaja, who stressed the importance of living together in peace and harmony, said  the UN Day of Peace was to campaign against prevailing violence in parts of the world.

“This year’s commemoration, according to him, focuses on the plight of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), refugees and others whose dignity is negatively impacted by violent conflicts occasioned by humanitarian crises.

“This explains the rationale for the theme: Together for Peace: Respect, Safety and Dignity for All,” he said.

He said that different factors such as poverty, unemployment as well as  social and political marginalisation had been identified as the root causes of violent conflicts and tensions among social groups.

Maihaja added that the situation was further heightened by voluntary  or coercion of youths and minors into violent extremism thereby systematically destroy the core values of today’s generation.