By Ibrahim Hassan-Wuyo

Kaduna : Global Peace Foundation Nigeria, (GPFN),has in commemoration of the World Interfaith Harmony Week,lamented that conflict entrepreneurs were frustrating peace building efforts in Nigeria and called on Christian and Muslim leaders in Kaduna State to work as one big family so as to encourage peace and brotherliness in the society.

The 2024 World Interfaith Harmony Week has as its theme, “Celebrating Unity In Diversity: Building Bridges Of Harmony.”

The Country Director, GPFN, Rev. Joseph John Hayab said at the occasion that the event is a celebration of people of faith beginning from 1st to 7th of February every year, as instituted by the United Nations in 2010.

According to him, the essence is for faith leaders to come and discuss the importance of harmony, tolerance and respect for one another.

Hayab who is a Peace Ambassador, lamented the activities of “conflict entrepreneurs in Nigeria”, adding that they are frustrating peace building efforts in the country, as division amongst residents gives political class opportunity to milk common wealth freely.

He called on Nigerians to resist the temptation of seeing their fellow human being as enemy, and pleaded with members of the two major faiths in Nigeria to team up as one family under God and thereafter ,synergize to get what belongs to them from the political class.

“We realized that those who further the division do that because through that they can continue to have a field day milking from our common wealth and we cannot challenge them. The reason why today we see that patriotism is not really strong in our country is because we are not treating citizens as citizens but as though they are visitors, creating divisions amongst them as if it is we versus them.”

“Every citizen is a citizen and has equal rights in the constitution. Therefore, this nation should not be divided using any form of identity but let everybody be respected, treated equally with justice, equity fairness. When people know that their country cares, loves and want to defend them, they will be patriotic.”

“At the global peace foundation we try to promote that we are one family under God, we have gathered Faith leaders …today to remind them of the importance of this day so that we can continue to promote peace together. We want a situation where every faith leader ,cutting across the two major religions make a new friend today and even follow up to know each other’s family.,” he said.

Deputy Director, Bureau Of Interfaith, Kaduna state, Rev. Fr. Anthony Shawuya, said at the occasion, that they are doing everything possible to ensure that their mandate to see religious harmony and peaceful coexistience in Kaduna state thrives at all costs.

He said that they have established an inter-religious harmony committee and as well as the religious preaching bill, to curb the menace of hate speech especially by clerics who use their podium to instigate their followers to cause different degrees of unrest in the society.

The Project Leader for Global Peace Women in Nigeria, Aisha Yakubu, told journalists that”women are more vulnerable and were at the receiving end when it comes to whatever kind of conflict in the society.

She said the meeting would foster harmony snd peaceful coexistience , and will give room for peace and more economic development for women and social inclusion because what causes the vulnerability was the lack of social inclusion.

“So gathering like this should also include a lot of women so that women can be given the chance to speak because they are the first respondent to Violence and conflict.”

The Northern Coordinator, GPFN Sheikh Abdullahi Halliru Maraya, called on the political class to concentrate more on their constitutional mandate of protecting the lives and properties of the citizenry and prepare social welfare for the people.

According to him, Nigerians today are suffering multidimensional challenges.

Coordinator, Justice, Development and Peace Caritas, (JDPC) Kaduna state, Rev. Fr. Joshua Achir said that, “as stakeholder in peace building and the promotion of inter-religious dialogue, the meeting will bring about awesome resolutions that will help us to live aright especially as brothers and sisters.”

“You see Christians and Muslims interacting on issues of common interests, you see us eating together, talking about breaching peace and the call that we should not just be seen preaching peace but also should be seen living what we preach as practical examples of our expectation from our followers,” he said.