ADIKWU ALADI QUEEN.U14MM1029
Professor of Fine and applied art from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. Professor Jerry Buhari made the suggestion during a lecture in an event marking international day for peace at the interfaith mediation centre, Kaduna
The high profile intellectual explained that in line with the theme of the twenty eighteen international peace day ‘’THE RIGHT TO PEACE’ ’Nigerians should make concerted effort toward embracing peace with one another which he said was parts of their fundamental human rights for sustainable development of the nation
According to him, creative art development could be used as veritable tools to compliment the United Nation’s Universal Declaration on the world peace day, specifically designed and devoted to the’’ absence of war and violence’’ occasioned by a ‘’temporary ceasefire’’ in the combat zone for humanitarian access
Lamenting on the state of conflict and violence in the country which have led to loss of lives and property worth billions. The Professor of fine art maintains that, effective, accountable as well as inclusive societies could be achieved via peace which followed the UN General Assembly’s Resolution on the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs] that covers wide range of issues to include Poverty, Hunger, Health, Education, climate change, Gender Equality,Water,Sanitation,Energy,Environment and social justice with the view to achieving Economic and Social Development for all ‘’when you understand the simple definition of art as the expression of human feelings and emotion, then you will know that art is actually about life itself, an embodiment of human experience and a response to human encounter or interaction with his fellow human beings or his environment, societies that have recognised the roles of art as an instrument for development, have always engaged artists in National debates, conferences and strategic master plan for the future. You can use arts to promote peace by engaging artists to create works that speak to the issues of peace, art is a universal language because it uses visual images to advance knowledge, information and a messages. The incredible power of art is that it uses visual images to speak to people and perhaps one of the most effective instruments to advance peace in the society
Core Directors of the interfaith mediation centre Kaduna. Pastor [Dr] James Wuye, and Dr Mohammed Ashafa [Imam] who pointed out that the importance of peace cannot be over-emphasized commended the youths from various non-profit organizations for their dogged determination to promote peace for growth and development ‘’if peace building organizations and Human Rights group can come together and foster peace in celebration of the international world peaceday,we are on the right track,collaboration,complementing each other is good, lets every house,church,mosque and community imbibe the culture of peace. Peace must begin with every one of us, you cannot have peace In the world until we have peace in our countries and we cannot have peace in our countries until we have peace in our communities and we cannot have peace in our communities until we have peace in our homes and there would be no peace in our homes until we have peace with our selves’’
The event at the interfaith mediation centre, Kaduna which was parts of efforts to promoting peaceful coexistence in the state and the Nation in general was in collaboration with non-governmental organizations such as Generations for peace, Youths for Human Rights International, Arts Café, Poets unites for sustainable peace[ pusp] among others , pledged their readiness to promote peace in their various communities as well as address local issues of conflict and violence in their local communities
During the event, few arts works were exhibited depicting how creative arts could be used to promote peace in the society as they all unanimously agreed to make peace building initiative a collective business starting from individual persons
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