By Don Peter Okoro
The United Nations Peace and Positive Living Awareness Centre under the Leadership of Amb. Dr Festus Ozioma Ozoemena Ph.D. on Saturday the 17th of May 17, 2025 stormed Uyo, the capital city of Akwa Ibom State for a Peace Conference and to Inaugurate the South South Regional Chapter.
This was in celebration of the 2025 World Peace Day and to appoint, award and investiture new peace advocates and Ambassadors.
The event which witnessed delegations from the Governors of the South South Region was very massive.
It started on a good note with the Chairman on the occasion, Amb.Sunday G. Sampson saying that he was humbled and excited to chair the heavy occasion.
The event, he said, spoke directly to peaceful co–existence and positive living among people irrespective of colour, race, or religion.
He disclosed that the Peace and Positive Living Awareness Centre provided a platform for the actualization of the laudable initiative of Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs) of the UN.
He said: “Peace and positive living are imperative in a world currently plagued by insurgency, war, criminality and general insecurity.
“They are even more compelling locally and internationally where Nations are engaged in quasi racist separatist policies and supremacist transactional economic diplomacy. What brutal capitalism terms survival of the fittest, leaving the vulnerable communities and developing countries starved of interventional and humanitarian funds and programmes that promote peace and positive living.”
In an interview with the press shortly after the ceremony, Amb. Dr Festus Ozioma Ozoemena spoke on what informed the event.
His words: “This year is a special year for us as an organization. Every step and every move we are taking is very strategic, be it at the local, zonal, state, regional, national and International or global levels.”
He continued: “In February this year, we inaugurated the Anambra State Executive members with orientation, workshop and training. After that, we featured in what is called CSW 69. That is United Nations Commission on the Status of Women Session 69 at the International Headquarters of the United Nations in New York USA. It was a high level engagement, meeting and conference on global peace and sustainable development focussing on women issues, women empowerment, gender quality and the girl child.
“After that, we had the first National Programme in Nigeria that held at the National Merit Award House, Aguiyi Ironsi Road, Maitama Abuja on the 27th of March 2025. That was just about a week after the UN- USA International Conference which ended on the 21st of March.
“I left JF Kennedy International Airport in New York on the 24th and arrived Abuja Nigeria on the 25th of March to attend the programme on the 27th of March. It featured prominent personalities from the country and overseas.”
The Chairman on the occasion was the retired Inspector General of Police and former Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Chief Sir Dr. Mike Mbama Okiro who happens to be the Chairman of the Advisory Council.
It was a powerful and very impactful event and people came from all over Nigeria and abroad. And all the people who came testified that it was worth it as they took the message of peace to their respective places.
“And here we are in May, here in Uyo Akwa Ibom State. What we are having in Uyo is not just a programme for Akwa Ibom State, but the inaugural ceremony for the South South.
“We know that South South is very strategic as far as this country, Nigeria is concerned. And Akwa Ibom is part and parcel of the South South. It is an oil rich State and part of the Niger Delta and very enterprising in terms of human resources and mineral deposits.
“They have also had their fair share of violence and crisis, talking about the Niger Delta Militancy and the rest of them, which the country should not allow to repeat itself. After conducting our survey, we discovered that there is no sustainable road map put in place to ensure that violent conflicts and crisis are prevented from re-occuring.
“And in the event that they occur, no effective mechanism is put in place to be able to handle such a situation.
“We discovered that it has always been a fire brigade approach that our government at various levels apply to handle such situations.
“Now we came up with this programme to inaugurate the peace initiative for the South South.
“To be able to achieve this, we inducted men and women who have subscribed to the ideals of global peace. Men who believe that peace is the way forward. We have given them trainings, and orientation to prepare and equip them.
“Now people from Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Rivers, Bayelsa and even some South East States like Imo, Abia, Ebonyi and Enugu were all represented in this epoch making event. What this means is that they will be the ones to take the message of peace back to their people and their states and they should be able to replicate same and get people into a culture of peace.
“It is not easy to remold a human being particularly an adult, but under God in this agenda, He is helping us. At the global stage, we are pursuing Agenda 20-30 of the United Nations to achieve global peace and sustainable development.
And we say: “Think globally but act locally. It is by acting locally that the global vision and agenda will be actualized. And that is exactly what we have done by launching this Initiative in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State.”
