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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

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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.

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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

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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,

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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?

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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,

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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 ?

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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 ?

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(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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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28

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