Last month, scholars within Africa gathered at the boisterous city of Abia state to discuss the place of peace in nation building. The event which coincided with International Peace Day, was organized by Peace International Interdisciplinary Research Institute (PIIRI),Abuja.
With the theme, ‘action for peace towards sustainable development in Africa’, was targeted at researchers and scholars charting a new roadmap for sustainable peace in Africa. The conference became necessary following series of crises plaguing different countries in Africa.
According to European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, millions of people in Burkina Faso’, Burundi, Nigeria,Cameroon,Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya among others, are displayed and need urgent humanitarian attention. Africa wouldn’t have been so plagued into crises if the people orchestrating these crises were made to understand the place of peace in nation building and development. Therefore, the decision of PIIRI to meet and brainstorm on different ways of preaching peace in the continent, became apt and commendable.
Perhaps the President, Board of Trustees of Peace International Interdisciplinary Research Institute (PIIRI), Abuja – Prof (Amb) Peace E. Udosen succinctly captured the heartbeat of most African leaders when she said achieving true peace goes beyond laying downs arms, but building societies where all members feel that they can flourish. “It involves creating a world in which people are treated equally, regardless of their race.”
Most people have misconstrued the concept of peace to mean absence of war, fight, or laying of arms. Achieving peace entails much more than that. It involves continued advocacy and education which is the rightful path PIIRI seeks to achieve.
Part of the recommendations was a call for African leaders through various regional bodies should ensure visa free access within the African continent. This, they believe will guarantee economic growth within Africa.
The conference also recommended that African Union should develop a master plan for an inter-continental rail line across African nations as well as create a special fund for researchers and encourage captains of industries to tap from the fountain of resources abound in the untapped research banks across Nigeria and Africa.
One striking part of the conference was the conferment of awards to outstanding scholars and personalities. Dr (Mrs) Ngo Mbe Maximilienne Chantale of Global Peace Ambassador (GPA) and doctoral honoris causa award recipient, from the Republic of Cameroun, sits well among the awardees.
Dr. Maximilienne Chantal was born on 20 December 1972 in Douala. She is a Human Rights Defender Executive Director-REDHAC
She became Human rights activist since class 1 at the Lycée Classique d’Edéa-Littoral Region, Cameroon.
Between 1996-2000, she was activist with PRODHOP (Solidarité pour la Promotion des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples), an association for the defence of human rights in Cameroon.
In 2007, Dr. Maximilienne Chantal emerged as the founding member of the Human Rights Defenders Network in Central Africa created in Kigali- Rwanda.
She was appointed expert of the African Union Political Affairs Commission on Democracy, Elections and Governance since 2011.
Since 2009, Dr. Chantel became trainer for FrontLine Defenders on the protection and physical security of Defenders; 2008: Consultant to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders on human rights issues and the protection of human rights defenders. She was selected as Amnesty International trainer on Monitoring and Reporting Human Rights Violations without Discrimination in Africa since 2007.
Dr. Chantal, because of her outstanding contributions to the society, she is a member of Coalition for an Effective African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR); Human Rights Committee on Civil and Political Rights: Steering Committee of the NGO Forum led by ACDHRs which is held as a prelude to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and which brings together more than 500 African civil society, associations, international organisations, National Human Rights Institutions, signatory governments of the African Union Charter and the United Nations.
The award bestowed on Dr. Chantal is well deserved and she should be encouraged by scholars to keep the good work.
