By James Ogunnaike

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday charged African youth to employ dialogue, rather than resorting to conflicts and violence in resolving their differences, that will eventually lead to destruction of lives and property.

He said, there must be conscious efforts to build and inculcate culture of peace and security in the youth to spur them to be at the vanguard of promoting peace in the continent.

Obasanjo said this at youth leadership symposium with the theme, “Opportunities for Peace: Roles of the Youths in Conflict Prevention in Africa”, held at Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta.

The programme was put together by Centre for Human Security and Dialogue in collaboration with Institute for African Culture and International Understanding, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, as part of activities lined up for the 87th birthday of the former President.

Obasanjo explained that rather than pushing forward the narratives of hatred, pull him down and negative attitudes which brew conflicts and lead to violence, we must begin to embrace love, tolerance and see peace as not negotiable for economic growth and prosperity.

He said, the youth who he emphasised are no longer leaders of tomorrow but today, must stand firmly against conflicts in any part of Africa, to be agents of peace rather than being lured or used as agent of destabilization.

The former President said, “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. 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”.

“We have youths in the Bible like Esther who was able to secure her race from being exterminated. Same thing goes for Joseph, another youths who helped to fight famine”.

“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 the civil war. We killed ourselves mercilessly, destroyed our best facilities, but we still came back to the roundtable to get the challenges resolved”.

“Youths must develop culture of peace, culture of humanness, culture of living the way God wants us to live”.

The former President also urged the youth never to give in to life challenges, but rather stand up to it, believing that with the help of the Almighty God, no mountain is insurmountable.

Obasanjo condemned youths committing suicide because of difficulty of life saying that such ungodly and illegal act has never been known to solve any problems.

He said, “When the time is rough and tough, the tough must get going. No problem is new and no problem will be permanent. Commiting suicide is not the end of any problem, confront it and take it to God because he could do anything. When you have problem, look at those who have had this type of problem before and how they overcame it

Speaking on the economic challenges presently ravaging the country, the former President said, there was nothing wrong in Nigeria reaching out to Zimbabwe to learn from the southern African country how it weathered the storm of galloping inflation which currently plagues Nigeria.

“We have this problem of galloping inflation in the country now, but do we have a country with such problems recently, yes we do. Zimbabwe had this problem recently. Shouldn’t we ask them how they did it even if our approach will be different? Even if whatever we shall be doing will be different but we can ask questions to navigate our way out”.

The Coordinator of the programme and former Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission, Prof Peter Okebukola said the essence of the symposium was to further drive home the commitment of Chief Obasanjo who believes that African youths have pivotal roles to play in achieving peace across the continent.

Okebukola who is the Director of Institute for African Culture and International Understanding, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, said “this event was a testament to the belief that it is not enough to grant young people a seat at the table; their involvement must be vital and meaningful.

“Through targeted interventions, inclusive policies, and international collaboration, we aimed to empower West African youths as catalysts for positive change, paving way for a more peaceful and harmonious society”.