Post on 22-Feb-2023
1
GENDER DIMENSION TO MANAGING AND PLANNING
PEACE CULTURE AND PEACE EDUCATION IN NIGERIA
BEING A LEAD PAPER DELIVERED DURING NIGERIAN
ASSOCIATION FOR EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
AND PLANNING (NAEAP) 33RD ANNUAL CONFERENCE
HELD AT
ALHAJI ATIKU ABUBAKAR AUDITORIUM MUSA YAR’ADUA
ULTRA MODERN CENTRE ABUJA BUSINESS DISTRICT
ABUJA ON 15TH OCTOBER 2014
BY
PROF. NKECHI IKEDIUGWU
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT AND
POLICY
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY AWKA ANAMBRA STATE,
NIGERIA
e-mail-nkechiikediugwu@yahoo.com
PHONE NOS 08033105894, 08077860008,
08184466696
2
ABSTRACT
Peace culture is a set of values, attitudes, nodes of behavior and ways of life that reject violence and prevent conflict by tackling their root causes while Peace Education is the process of acquiring the values, the knowledge and developing the attitudes, skills and behavior to live in harmony with oneself, with others and with natural environment. This paper, define the concept of Peace, Peace culture and peace education. The need for peace Education in Nigeria were also highlighted. They include too many ills in Nigeria today, among which are, terrorists attacks, kidnapping and abduction of students from schools, students vandalism, high rates of insurgence and increased rate of cult activities among others. Strategies for managing and planning peace culture and Education were suggested. These strategies includes preventive Education strategies, political/social interaction strategy, legislature strategy government policy strategy. The paper further discussed the role of Gender in planning and managing peace education and necessary recommendations for promoting peace education were made.
3
INTRODUCTION
The global consensus is that Education is a process that helps to develop
the whole human being, physically, mentally, morally politically, socially
and technologically to enable him/her to function in any environment in
which one many find oneself (Igbebon 2014).For Agboram (2006)
Education is the most important instrument for preparing individual for life
as well as reforming the society for relevance, adequacy and competition in
the world. Lyod (2002) views education as the process of developing the
knowledge skills and character of students. Education performs a major
role of equipping the individual with the skills and knowledge which will
help to transform any economy. Education is the prerequisite for a
successful – engineered national system and it is the answer to ignorance
and servitude the gateway to the future and the key to national
development (FGN 2007). Globally and Nigeria specifically education is a
tool for national development.
The country‟s educational goals have been spelt out in the national
policy on Education in terms of the relevance to the needs of the individual
and the society at large policy. Towards this end, the National Policy on
Education set up certain aims and objectives which were to facilitate
educational development in the country.
The National Policy on Education has been described as governments‟ way
of achieving that part of its national objectives that can be met by using
education as a tool. The policy is based on broad national objectives which
were spelt out in the second National Development plan 1970-1990. These
were the building of
1. A free and democratic society
2. A just and egalitarian society
4
3. A united strong and self reliant nation
4. A great and dynamic economy
5. A land of bright and full opportunities for all citizens.
These objectives are still as valid today as when they were
formulated. Consequently the nature of instruction at all levels is
oriented towards inculcating the values which are also well set out of
the said policy namely:
a. Respect of the worth and dignity of individuals
b. Faith in man‟s ability to make national decisions
c. Moral and spiritual values in interpersonal and human relations
d. Shared responsibility of the common good of the society.
e. Respect for the dignity of labour.
f. Promotion of the emotional and psychological health of all
children.
The National Policy seeks to achieve the above values by means of
enriched curricular at the various levels. As years rolled by, the national
policy on Education had undergone several restructuring to make it
relevant to the needs of new vibrant nation. The curriculum had been
widened revised modernized to give pupils and students opportunity to
learn how to use their heads as well as their hands as well as to meet the
global challenges. This new structure provided many more options both
academic, technical vocational at the various levels throughout the system.
Despite the various attempts and efforts to achieve and implement those
objectives of National Policy of Education there are still some problems
making it difficult. One of this problem is peace. What then is peace?
Peace is an occurrence of harmony characterized by lack of violence,
conflict behaviours and freedom from fear of violence. Hornby (2005)
define Peace as freedom from war or violence especially when people live
and work together happily. It could also be said to mean calm and quiet,
5
lack of interruption or annoyance from worry, problem noise or Unwanted
action.
For Webster (1999) Peace
Means the following:
(i) A state of quiet or tranquility
(ii) Freedom from disturbance or agitation
(iii) Calm, repose
(iv) Absence or cessation of war
(v) General order or tranquility
(vi) Freedom from violence or riot
(vii) A state of reconciliation after strife or enmity.
Peace therefore is the absence of hostility and retribution. Peace also
suggest sincere attempts at reconciliation, the existence of healthy inter-
personal or international relations, prosperity in matters of social or
economic welfare, the establishment of equality and a working political
order that serves the interest of all.
What is Peace Culture?
UNESCO (2008) Defined peace culture as a set of values, attitudes modes
of behavior and ways of life that reject violence and prevent conflicts by
tackling their root causes to solve problems through dialogue and
negotiations among individuals, groups and nations. Peace culture should
start and develop from our various clans and villages. A child born should
learn from infancy that peaceful living is compulsory and part of everyday
life. The child grows up with these peace culture imbibed in him/her and
he in return transmits it to others.
Peace culture is a gradual process and should start early in life.
What is Peace Education?
6
Peace Education is the process of acquiring the values, the knowledge and
developing the attitudes, skills and behaviour to live in harmony with
oneself, with others and with the natural environment.
Harris and Synott (2002) described peace education as a series of
teachings and encounters that draw from people the following:
(i) Their desire for peace
(ii) Non violent alternatives for managing conflicts.
(iii) Skills for critical analysis of structured arrangement that
produce and legitimize injustice and inequality.
For page (2008) peace education should be thought of as encouraging a
commitment to peace and a settled disposition and enhancing the
confidence of the individual as an individual agent. Peace education
includes informing the students on the consequences of war and social
injustices. It also involves informing the students on the value of peace and
just social structures and working to uphold or develop such social
structures as encouraging the students to love the world and imagine a
peaceful future and as caring for students and encouraging the students to
care for others.
Since the early 20th century, Peace education programmes around
the world have represented a spectrum of focal themes including anti-
nuclearism, international understanding, environmental world
responsibility, communication skills, non violence, conflict resolution
techniques, democracy, human rights awareness, tolerance of diversity,
coexistence and gender equality.
Peace education must be planned to include programmes on conflict
resolution which should be centred on social behavioural symptoms of
conflicts, training individuals to resolves inter-personal disputes through
techniques of negotiation and peer mediation, learning to manage anger,
7
fight fair and improve communication through skills such as listening, turn
taking, identifying needs and separating facts from emotions.
The peace education should aim at changing the beliefs, altitudes
and behavior from negative to positive towards conflicts prevention.
Danesh (2003) proposes an integrative theory of peace education. He
emphasized that in this context, peace is understood as a psychosocial,
political, normal and spiritual reality. Peace Education according to him
must focus on healthy development and maturation of human
consciousness through assisting people to examine and transform their
world view. The worldviews are defined as subconscious lens acquired
through confined, family, historical, religious and society influence.
According to Clerk (2009) Peace education must be holistic and
should be able to account for the inter personal, inter group and
international dynamics of peace.
The Need for Peace Education in Nigeria today
There are so many instances of violence erupting from all parts of
Nigeria. Violence can be defined as an overt aggressive behavior against
self, and other person or groups of persons. Ezenwata (2009). These
violence eruption in Nigeria has taken so many dimensions which includes
inter-tribal wars, kidnapping, terrorist attacks etc. Scholars have attributed
this sudden violence eruption in Nigeria to so many reasons. These
reasons include Religious, Economics, Political, reasons, intellectual
reasons, social. The climax of all these was the abduction of over 200
students from Government College Chibok.
On the night of 14-15 April 2014, 276 female students were kidnapped
from government secondary school in the town of Chibok in Borno State
Nigeria. The girls who were in the school dormitory heard the sound of
gunshots from a nearby town so when armed men in uniform burst in and
promised to rescue them at first they were relieved. The gun men
8
commanded the hundreds of students at the Chibok Government Girls
Secondary School to gather outside. The men went into a storeroom and
removed all the food items. Then set fire to the room and abducted the
girls. Hundreds days later 276 girls were still missing, at least two have
died of snakebite and about 20 others ill.
The Chibok girl‟s school is in the remote and sparsely populated north east
region of Nigeria.
The kidnappers were members of ruthless Islamic extremist group called
BOKO HARAM. They kidnapped the entire group of girls and drove them
away in pick up trucks into the dense forest. The Boko Haram the name
means “Western Education is sinful” has threatened to sell the girls. Some
of the girls had escaped from that forest but majority are still there. There
are speculations that some of the girls had been given out in marriage and
some sold to neighbouring countries. Amid group outrage at the girls
prolonged captivity many international countries got interested in the case.
Britain, America had sent help to Nigeria for the rescue of the girls four
months later girls are still missing. A number of questions are being asked
by scholars, Nigerians and the world. Where were the principal and
teachers of the Chibok School during the abduction?
What of the local government chairman? What of Borno State Governor?
How safe are our schools in Nigeria today? These and many more
questions remain unanswered.
On July 17 2014, the radio Nigeria network news reported that a teacher
by name Kingsley Asiegbu from Ebonyi State Kidnapped his two pupils from
Ogun State where his school was located and took the children to Effiong.
Mr. Asiegbu started demanding N250,000 from the parents of his pupils.
The parents of the pupils he kidnapped had already paid N150,000 naira
into his account before the teacher was caught.
9
Where are we heading to? If teachers who are entrusted with taking care
of children are now kidnapping and selling the children they we meant to
protect, what are our schools turning out to be. Hence the need for Peace
Education in our schools. Other reasons why peace education is needed in
Nigeria today are:-
1. Religious Belief:
The Moslem religious group known as Boko Haram which came on
board in Nigeria around 2010 with their first attack in Maiduguri on 30th
December 2010 claimed that they were waging religious war. They
called themselves “Boko Haram” Since then they have destroyed so
many lives, properties worth billions of naira.
2. Economic Reasons:
Some of these violence erupted due to economic reasons ranging from
poverty, hunger, lost of job, failed businesses, frustration etc.
3. Political Reasons: There is also this general believe that some people
who are against the government of the day had grouped themselves
into terrorist attacking people to show their serious discontent with the
government of the day.
4. Lack of Education:
Illiteracy is a major problem in Nigeria. Many Nigerians are illiterate and
therefore not likely to perceive things correctly. The Nigerian
government had made many serveral attempts to ensure that an
average Nigerian get access to quality Education. The policy sets out
clearly what the basic philosophy, objectives and of education in the
country should be. It articulates the values that teacher should inculcate
into learners and spells out the objectives of each level of the
educational system. The policy is unequivocal in its insistence on
functional, universal and qualitative education being the objective of the
10
country” educational endeavour Nigeria participated in the Daker (2000)
conference in which was aimed at
(i) Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and
education.
(ii) Ensure that by 2015 all children with special emphasis on girls
have access to and complete free and compulsory primary
education of good quality.
(iii) Achieve a 50 percent improvement in levels of adult literacy by
2015.
Despite all these efforts illiteracy rates in Nigeria still remain very
high.
There are lots of other reasons why Peace Education is very important and
urgent in Nigeria today; these reasons include:
5. Arising cases of insurgence, in Nigeria today.
6. Increasing cases of kidnapping
7. Increasing cases of human trafficking
8. High rate of unrest in our schools
9. Increasing cases of sexual harassment from teachers in schools.
10. Explosive rate of cult activities in our schools.
There are about 90 types of cults in our various schools today
(Ikediugwu 2008)
11. Rioting among students.
12. Armed Robbery among students
13. Willful secret damage of school property by students
14. Increased students vandalism
15. Violent trade unionism among students
16. Drug abuse among students.
Below is a table of the activities of Boko Haram in Nigeria from 2010 till
date.
11
BOKO HARAM ACTIVITIES STARTED 2010-
Date Location Deaths Injured
30/12/10 Maiduguri 6 x
25/12/10 Jos 32 x
31/12/10 Abuja, Military 11 13
26/6/10 Borno 25 12
9/10/11 Maiduguri X x
8/4/11 Suleja INEC Office 16 x
23/7/11 Maiduguri 3 several
3/7/11 Maiduguri 5 10
26/8/11 Abuja UN house 26 116
13/9/11 Maiduguri 4 x
16/6/11 Abuja, Nig Police
Headquarters
8 44
26/6/11 Maiduguri 25 12
4/12/11 Azare, Bauchi 3 X
7/12/11 Ori, Kaduna 7 X
13/12/11 Maiduguri 10 30
22/12/11 Maiduguri and Dematuru 4 X
25/12/11 Jos, Plateau, Suleje
Yobe Church
43 Several
28/12/11 Sapele, Delta, Hausa
Quarters
X 7
30/12/11 Gombe Hotel X 15
12
5/1/2012 Gomber and Adamawa 28 X
7/1/2012 Adamawa 17 12
20/1/2012 Kano 162 Several
22/1/2012 Bauchi 11 X
3/2/2012 Kogi, State Police
Station
4 Several
1/3/2012 Jos, Church 10 Many
24/3/12 Kano 2 X
8/4/12 Jos, Church 20 Many
8/4/12 Kaduna 40 “
29/4/12 Kano-Bayero Univ. 16 X
26/4/12 Abuja, Kaduna 6 Many
30/4/12 Taraba 11 X
25/4/12 Maiduguri Police
Headquarters
7 X
3/6/12 Bauchi 12 Many
8/6/12 Maiduguri Unknown X
10/6/12 Jos 8 X
17/6/12 Kaduna and Zaria 40 X
22/6/12 Abuja X X
13/7/12 Maiduguri 5 X
30/7/12 Zaria Kaduna 5 X
14/8/12 Kaduna 4 X
26/8/12 Maiduguri Unknown X
13
23/9/12 Bauchi 2 46
5/10/12 Maiduguri 1 11
6/10/12 Taraba X 8
8/10/12 Maiduguri 35 X
28/10/12 Kaduna 8 100
7/5/13 Bama 55 ?
6/7/13 Yobe State 42 ?
12/2/14 Konduga 39 ?
12/2/14 Wajirka 4 6
16/2/14 Zor Rana, Christian
Village, Borno
90 ?
19/2/14 Bama 60 ?
25/2/14 Buni Yadi 59 ?
1/3/14 Maiduguri 51 ?
1/3/14 Mainok 39 ?
10/4/14 Kala Baise 60 ?
10/4/14 Dikwa 8 ?
14/4/14 Abuja (Nyanya) 88 125
15/4/14 Abuja 19 60
5/5/14 Gamboru Nsala 300 Many
18/5/14 Kano 4 ?
25/5/14 Yobe and Borno State 54 ?
21/5/14 Chikogudo 25 ?
14
20/5/14 Jos 118 56
27/5/14 Borno State 48 ?
3/5/14 Kala/Balze 40 ?
1/6/14 Mudi 40 + ?
23/6/14 Kano 12 + “
28/6/14 Abuja-Emab Plaza 22 52
23/7/2014 Kaduna 25 ?
15
(NIGER DELTA MILITANTS)
Date Details Deaths Injured
10/5/06 Baker Hayes offered kidnapped X X
2/6/06 16 crew members, Norweigian firm
kidnapped (PH)
X X
20/8/06 Hostage rescue (PH) 10 X
2/10/06 Mortal shell in PH 10 X
3/10/06 4 scots and 3 other foreigners
abducted
X X
4/10/06 Soldiers attack 9 (soldiers) X
1/5/07 Attack a Chevron, Olobiri 10 X
3/5/7 Attack an offshore vessel 8 hostages
taken
23/7/7 Member 1 hostages taken X X
There were other attacks up to 2009 but more of hostages than deaths.
11/7/07 Lagos (first attack) on Atlas core
Jetthy
5 x
24/11/9 Oil Jethy in PH hijacked 2 1
2010
15/3 Twin bomb explosion, Warri 3 6
21/8 PH 1 -
1/10 Abuja, (Independence day) 12 17
2011
16/3 Bomb explosion (oil rig) X X
14/9 It fillipus + 9 sailons abducted X X
16
13/10 20 Russian sailors kidnapped X X
1/11 3 British sailors kidnapped X X
2012
2/1 Hotel Bombing – Warri X X
13/2 Cargo ship attack 2 X
29/2 3 Dutch sailors kidnapped X X
27/7 Oil carrier Bayelse 1 X
4/8 3 sailors kidnapped Soles 2 X
13/10 Attack or oil carrier 1 2
2013
9/1 Attack on pipeline 50 ?
4/12 Filipino oil vessel attack 1 -
7/2 3 Foreign kidnapped - cargo
5/2 Attack –Indian oil barge (foreign) 4 -
More violence but no deaths lies
6/4 Bayelsea-While escorting military
chip 12 policemen killed several
other raids by the militants
12 X
15/8 Nigeria Navy intercepts the pirates 13 dead
WHAT ARE THE STRATEGIES FOR MANAGING AND PLANNING
PEACE EDUCATION IN NIGERIA
For Nigeria to move forward there is need to plan and manage peace
education well in Nigeria.
The following can help to promote peace Education in Nigeria.
17
1. Education Strategy: The Educational curriculum of all categories of
education should be revised to include peace ethics –from nursery to
primary to secondary to tertiary education. The revised curriculum
must include qualitative values, attitudes and behavior of cultures.
All these should be included in the curriculum things like respect for
elders, loving and caring for one another, greetings fro elders,
peaceful slogans must be taught and included in the curriculum.
Teachers at all levels must teach and emphasis these values.
The Educational approach should also be geared towards promoting
sustainable, economic and social development. Peace clubs, peace
societies must be encouraged and developed in schools.
2. Political Social Interaction strategy: There should be strategic
interaction between the school and the community. There should be
support for participatory communication and free information among
students themselves, between students and management and
between school and community. Peace education should be centred
on democratic and conflict resolution principles. The society must be
taught not to resolve conflict through violence and war but rather
through dialogue. A democratic society needs the commitment of
citizens who accepts the inevitability of conflicts as well as necessity
for tolerance. This kind of peace education should attempt to foster a
conflict positive orientation in the community by training students
and community members to view conflict as a platform for creativity
and growth. Peace education programme of this kind should include
training the participants in skills of critical thinking, debate, coalition
building, promoting the values of freedom of speech, individuality
tolerance of diversity, compromise and conscientious objective. The
aim is to produce responsible citizens who will hold government
accountable to the standards of peace. Activities should be structured
18
to have students assume the citizens that should make decisions and
respect the opinion of others. Freedom of interaction and sharing of
information, democratic principle decreases likelihood of violence and
wars and are indispensable for culture of peace.
3. Legislature Strategy: The legal judicial system should be made
more responsive to issues of violence and disruption of peace in the
country. New Laws should be enacted and existing laws reviewed to
ensure that justice is quick and punishment meted out to the culprits
is commensurate with severity of the offense.
4. Government Policy Strategy: Government should make more
responsive policies to issue of peace disruption. They should be firm
and fearless when handling the culprits. Favourtism or issue of
political party alliance must be de-emphasized
5. Security Strategy: Campus security/police and protection services
vary widely around the world. Nigerian schools- must establish
security police services in schools. The aim should include the
following:
(a) Provision of security in the school,
(b) Assure safety of students, employees and guests.
(c) Interact with local and external security agencies.
(d) Provide education programmes on safety for students.
(e) Patrol the schools regularly.
(f) Investigate any crisis trying to erupt in the school.
(g) Provide safety programmes to students and teachers.
The Role of Gender in managing Peace Education
For centuries women were treated as less than equal to men in many
ways. Women have less access than men to credit, property ownership,
freedom of speech, juicy employment , medical care etc. They are for less
19
likely than men to be politically active and far more likely to be victims of
domestic violence. Violence against women is a world-wide problem that
affect women in all countries and thereby disrupts their peace. The world
health organization (WHO) estimates that one in every three women
globally has been beaten, raped or otherwise abused in her lifetime.
Violence against women takes different forms including domestic abuse,
rape, sexual assault, kidnapping, human trafficking selective abortion,
abandonment, female genital mutilation or killing act. In Nigeria, the social
context of violence against women is based on the traditional patriarch‟s
structure that defines gender. It is the belief in Nigeria that when a woman
is married she surrenders to her husband. She is required to provide sex
and obedience to her husband. She is not supposed to be heard or seen in
the public functions. Her place is in the kitchen. There is therefore need to
ensure equality between men and women.
A critical aspect of promoting gender equality is the empowerment of
women. Empowering women to participate fully in economic life across all
sectors is essential to building stronger economics achieve international
agreed goals for development and sustainability, improve the quality of life
for women, men, families, communities and above all ensure Peace for all.
The importance of gender equality can never bee over emphasized.
Gender Equality is achieved when women and men enjoy the same rights
and opportunities across all sectors of society. Gender equality is measured
by looking at the representation of men and of women in a range of rites.
Gender equality could also be measured based on the gap between women
and men in Education, economy and political environment.
Women are prime target in conflict. Yet when it comes to building Peace
women are excluded. Women are potentially vital agents for Peace
building. It has been proved beyond all reasonable doubts that women if
given the opportunity will plan and manage Peace education very well.
20
God empowered women with some innate abilities when God created
the world. The holy bible tells us in Genesis 3:20 that Adam called his wife
Eve because she was the mother of all living. Even the Quran, it was
revealed that it introduced fundamental reforms to customary law and
introduced right for women in marriage, divorce and inheritance. By
providing that the wife not her family would receive a dowry from the
husband which she could administer as her personal property. The Quran
made woman a legal party to the marriage contract. While in customary
law, inheritance was limited to the male descendants, the Quran
introduced rules on inheritance with certain fixed shares being distributed
to designated heirs first to the nearest female relatives and then the
nearest male relatives.
Having seen the rights and privileges women are enjoying, women
should therefore play some key roles in planning and managing Peace
Education in Nigeria. These roles include:-
1. Appropriate Home training and Parents behaviour:
The home is the first link in the chain of Education process. The home is
the cradle of peace and any child who lacks basic home training
seldom behaves well in the public. (Ikediugwu 2008). To plan and
manage peace, parents especially mothers should try and inculcate
proper behaviour/peace habits into their children. Children learn by
imitation. Parents should therefore live life worthy of emulation.
Fighting, quarreling or involving themselves in bad act before the
children enable the children to learn acts of violence from which
eventually they take to schools and corrupt other children and these
acts will therefore disturbs peace.
In the home, parents and other adults can help children to build
good sound value system by example which children can then emulate.
21
The parents must ensure that the child‟s personality is shaped by both
temperament and the nature of child‟s experience of the parents. The
parents serve as models for ego development and ego-ideal and superego
formation through the processes of introduction and identification. How a
person‟s developing character is affected by his or her parents depends
upon the stage of development at which critical situation involving
violence and conflicts arise. It also depends upon whether the child adopts
the parents affirming or prohibiting attitudes and whether he or she seeks
to be like or unlike the parents (Zdziarski 2007). More recently the field of
neurobiology through its use of imaging studies of the brain has suggested
an additional view point on imitative learning. Imaging studies show that
neurons in certain areas of the brain are simulated when a growing child
perceives the emotions of a parent – that is by simply observing a parent‟s
emotional state certain areas of the child‟s brain are activated. These
areas would usually be stimulated by the child directly if he or she were
experiencing that emotions. Therefore the discovery of the functions
served by neurons may suggest a human readiness to imitate the
behaviours of a parental figure. Parents must therefore as a matter of
compulsion be a Peace role model for their children.
School Role
The effectiveness of traditional behaviour pattern of Head teachers,
teachers, and students with respect to maintaining Peace has been
questioned by the public. To ensure proper Peace in the school. The
school should do the following:
The school must establish policies and procedures. There should be laid
down policy about Peace disruption in the school. These will provide the
framework within which the individual must operate. There should be
policies on how certain cases of disruption of Peace should be handled. The
problem that requires punishment, suspension or expulsion should be
22
specified. And when these policies are laid down, they must be adhered to
strictly. There should be clear rules and regulations to guide the children
conduct. It is certainly true that simply making rules clear and explicit will
not be effective in changing the behaviour of many disruptive children but
some children are made to rehearse the rules themselves as observed in
many schools, the children may remind others of rules. When rules are
made explicit children must be reinforced for following them. Any
enforcement of Peace based on fear paternalism or inaction can only
produce negative results and will not lead to development of those traits of
characters that make for good citizenship. The school authority should not
hesitate to abrogate or amend any rule which appear oppressive
unprogressive or un-enforceable.
To reduce this to the barest minimum, students should within
reasonable limit participate in formulating basic rules of conduct. Moreover,
the Peace policies that are made in schools should be in harmony with the
total goals of education and should represent sound education practice.
They should be in harmony with principles of democracy.
Save Our school Initiatives (SOSI)
This is a federal government project establish in 2014 following the
abduction of Chibok Girls. President GoodLuck Jonathan on Friday
May 10th 2014 announced an approval 1.6 billion naira in support
of the save schools initiative. This brings the total amount in support of
the initiative to about 3.2 billion. The former British Prime Minister Gordon
Brown who is the United Nations Economy for Education teamed up with
a coalition of Nigerian business leaders to launch the project (SOSI) as part
of activities of the world economic forum for Africa (WEFA). This launch of
SOSI was in response to the public out cry on the numbers of attacks on
23
the rights to Education including the kidnapping of more than 250 girls
from federal government college Chibok Borno state.
Mr. Brown announced an initial contribution of $10 million to help match
investigation by the government to promote schools as safe spaces. About
500 schools in the Northern states would benefit from the pilot scheme:
This is a welcome development but S0SI should not be only
government based. Students, teachers and school management should be
part and parcel of this initiative from the planning stage to experimental
stage to make it worthwhile.
24
Recommendations:
Based on the above discussions, the following recommendations are made:
To continue with the present challenges of violence and insurgence in the
country and to promote culture of peace the Federal Government should as
a matter of urgency do the following:
1. Create a Federal Peace Agency whose duty is to sensitize Nigerians
on the need for peace. This Agency should also be established at
state and local government levels for the same purpose.
2. Creation of schools police: the creation of school police will help to
checkmate peace disruption in the schools. These campus police will
not be taken from normal police but they should be young graduates
who will be trained specifically for the purpose. Their duty should
include to patrol schools, educate students and sensitize students on
the need for peace in the schools.
3. Government should revisit existing laws and make it more responsive
to issue of peace disruption. Government should be sincere when
handling people caught disrupting peace of the nation. Culprits must
be punished accordingly. The issue of favourtism and political party
alliance must be de-emphasized in handling culprits.
4. Creation of Jobs: Jobs should be created for many unemployed
youths. There is an adage which says that an idle mind is a devils
workshop. If the youth are gainfully employed, they will not be easily
deceived to engage in any activities that will disrupt peace of the
nation.
25
5. Peace Education should be made are course from primary to tertiary
education. The teaching of Peace Education under civics in not
enough. The curriculum should be reviewed and upgraded to include
everything about peace culture and peace education.
6. Peace clubs, peace societies should be established in our schools and
students must be encourage to join them.
7. Federal, State Local Government Education Authorities, women
organizations, NGOs should as a matter of urgency mount seminars,
workshops on peace stability in the country.
8. Youth Education especially unemployed youth should be embarked
upon by teachers and other stakeholders. Such training like career
training skills acquisition should form the focal points of the training.
9. Government should formulate more empowerment policies like SURE-
P and U-win programmes. But they should make the programmes to
be grassroot based and not only on to be seen on the television.
These programmes will empower youths financially to start their our
businesses. When youths are economically powered they will help to
promote peace culture in the country.
10. Government should endeavour to provide basic amenities like pipe
borne water, electricity especially to the rural communities. This will
make the rural dwellers a little bit comfortable and happy too. People
are likely to promote culture of peace when they happy than when
they are not.
26
Conclusion:
Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that
defences of Peace must be constructed (UNESCO 1945)
To promote Peace and avoid violence we need to transcend and overcome
enemy images with understanding, tolerance solidarity among all people
and cultures. We should learn from our differences through dialogue and
exchange of information. Indispensable foundation for the achievement
and maintenance of Peace and security are democratic principles,
practices, participation in al sectors of the society. Transparency and
accountability in governance and administration can help to combat
terrorism, organized crime corruption illicit drugs and money laundry and
thereby promote culture of Peace in Nigeria.
Teachers, Educational Managers and all stake holders in Education
must learn to teach, preach and emphasize love, tolerance and peace in
our everyday activities.
27
References
Danesh H.B (2006) Towards an integrative theory of peace Education. Journal of Peace Education 3(1) 55 -58
Ezenwata M.C.A (2009) Violence, A Persistent threat to world Peace
M.A.C.E Paperbacks Awka
FGN (2007) Education Reforms Act Abuja Fa. Press Florida Tunident International United Nations (2003) Fred Jane (2003) Ethical standards and Principles: A handbook for the
Profession (4th ed) Harris Ian & „s Synott John (2002) Peace Education for a new Century.
U.S.A. social alternatives Hornby A.S (2005) Advanced Learners Dictionary (6th Edition) London:
Oxford Publishers. Igboebisi N.P (2014) Enhancing of managerial skills of Head Teacher‟s
and public Primary school in Anambra State PhD (2006) Thesis. Department of Educational Foundations, Enugu state university of Science & Technology Enugu
Ikediugwu N.P. (2008) School Discipline: A guide for Administrators
Geraldic Publishers: Enugu Page J.S (2008) Peace Education Exploring Ethical and Philosophical
Foundation Chapter. Charlotte: Information Age Pub1 UNESCO (2004) Higher Education in a globalised society Paris Unesco UNICEF Understanding Results based programme planning and
management: Tools to Reinforce Good programming P. UNESCO: (2008) Higher Education in Post Conflict Countries