From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi
Benue State Government has set out an agenda for a four year strategic plan on peace building Director General,Benue Peace and Reconciliation Commission. Ms.Josephine Habba disclosed this to newsmen during a one day workshop held at Government House, Makurdi on Tuesday.
Ms. Habba explained that the program is part of 16 days World Peace Activism which the State celebrates that runs from 25th November to 10 December,2023.
She also, said the essence of the celebration is to bring together women who are the incubators of peace to brainstorm on how the State can achieve peace.
The DG added that the theme for this year’s celebration is ‘unite and invest in preventing gender based violence’, stressed the urgent need for women to unite and invest in all ramifications to ensure that their children are not used as tools for violence.
“We have a peace commission that is relatively new and our driving force us to see that women who are the incubators of peace come together and speak to us on how peace can come back to Benue knowing that conversation with women will go back to the bedroom, to the children and market places. When there is no peace, the women are most hurt and development is absent. So we want a critical engagement with the women on what they think is the way forward to get peace back.
“And because this year’s theme for the gender activism is unite and invest in preventing gender based violence, the unity is what we are trying to depict and invest in all ramifications to see that our children are no longer engaged to perpetrate evil. You can see that in our distribution of fertilizers two(2) weeks ago with support from United Nations Development Program,UNDP we distributed 1000 fertilizers for dry season farming so that we can engage the youths.”
