Former President Olusegun Obasanjo believes that only dialogue, not violence, will help resolve Africa’s conflicts.
Obasanjo spoke on Monday in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun state, at a youth leadership symposium organised as part of activities commemorating his 87th birthday.
The symposium was titled:
“Opportunities for Peace: The Roles of Youth in Conflict Prevention in Africa.”
The former president stated that efforts to instil a culture of peace and security in the youth must be intensified.
He noted that such efforts would encourage young people to be leaders in promoting peace rather than being used to commit violence.
Obasanjo said:
“We must begin to bring up our youths in the culture of peace and security. The chances are where we have a 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 a 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 and pull him down, then there will be problems.
“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 and destroyed our best facilities but we still came back to the roundtable to get the challenges resolved.”
The Centre for Human Security and Dialogue organised the event in collaboration with the Institute for African Culture and International Understanding at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library.
Former executive secretary of the Nationa Universities Commission (NUC), Peter Okebukola, emphasised Obasanjo’s belief in the importance of African youth in promoting peace across the continent.
