By Olayinka Latona

PROJECT Yigba, an initiative aimed at promoting peace across the nation with the use of non-violent communication, NVC was recently launched at the MUSON Centre, Lagos by persons who believe that the problems bedevilling the nation could be solved through that means.

Yigba was also dedicated to the memory of one of the pillar and founding members of the initiative, Mr. Oscar Onwudiwe by the project convener, Rev Oladimeji Thompson who recounted the qualities of Onwudiwe who passed on early in the year.

“With Onwudiwe, there is hope for a new Nigeria,” he said.

Speakers, including Professor Anya .O. Anya, Pastor Shyngle Wigwe, Yemi Akisanya, Agu Imo, Charles Oputa also known as Charlie Boy, Pastor Wale Adefarasin, Patrick Doyle, Bridget and Tunde Elesin, and others unanimously described the project as a major step to national peace-building. 

Explaining the word ‘Yigba’, the project coordinator who is a security expert and also Senior Pastor of Living Water Unlimited, Rev. Oladimeji Thompson said: “It is a seminal expression of unity and original word with a deliberate African twist of tongue. Yigba is one of the algorithms that will help us in the journey towards a new nation”.

The word, according to him was deliberately created not to provoke the dissension programmed into the “southern mix of cultural nations”

He pointed out that Yigba is designed to work as a retardant to the hatred, animosity and fear that facilitates the spread of the terrorism hydra.

He added that the project seeks to provide Nigerians with a non-violent alternative to the incendiary narratives bedevilling the nation.

Rev. Thompson said: “Yigba is the expression of love which Onwudiwe stood for. It is the first line of defense against the spread of massive bloodletting in Nigeria.

“Yigba is designed to work as a retardant to the hatred, animosity and fear that facilitates the spread of the terrorism hydra.

“We believe that Nigeria’s component tribal groups can strengthen their common ideals and progress their common interests, peaceably and without changing their core identity.

“We must rethink Nigeria and re-program the nation for success. To ensure the future, we must re-educate, re-value and provide guidance for the younger generations to avert what’s in the horizon” Rev Thompson said.

Mr. Yemi Akisanya in his paper titled ‘The Nigerian Key of Non-violent Communication’, posits that the non-violent communication approach to solving the problems of Nigeria is the most effective.

Explaining instances of how the idea of non-violent communication has worked in other climes, Mr. Akisanya noted that the project will borrow the ancient African wisdom in advocating for and promoting non-violent communication.

He stressed that NVC is the key adding, “This is the ancient version of non-violent communication. Thus, Yigba is essentially inviting us to draw back, to drink from the wells of ancient African wisdom and translating same to address the experiences of our modern society.”

The senior citizens who spoke at the event injected a dose of wisdom into the entire discourse.

The Burdened Elders at the launching programme, Pastor Shyngle Wigwe, Prof. Anya O. Anya said that the prospect of another war in Nigeria must not be entertained.

They recalled the events that led to the civil war in the 60s praying Nigeria does not experience such again.

Prof. Anya said: “We must cooperate on those things that unite us. It has been done in other countries. We can do it in Nigeria. Nigeria is more blessed than many of the countries that have succeeded. There is something here that makes us special. That is what Yigba stands for”.