Establishment of Peace Clubs in Junior Sec Schools Catalyst to promotion of Unity – Actionaid

By Abdullahi Kano

Resilience Programme Coordinator, Actionaid, Mr. Anicetus Atakpu has described the establishment of students’ peace clubs in schools across some selected junior secondary schools in Kano State as a major catalyst for the promotion of unity and social cohesion not only in Kano in particular but the country at large.

Mr. Anicetus Atakpu stated this during a 2-Day  Peace Clubs Training for junior secondary schools students organized by Actionaid in conjunction with the Disputes resolutions and development initiative formerly knowns as Democratic Action Group(DAG)   funded by  Global Community Engagement   Resilience Fund(GCERF), held at at the  Efficient Event Centre in Kano Thursday, 

He said the initiative had been conceived to engender peace that could lead people to coexist peacefully adding that promoting peace couldn’t have come at a better time when the country was facing security challenges.

The Program coordinator noted that the objective for convening the workshop was to ginger the confidence of students in schools to understand the simple fact that they should see themselves as agents of peace not agents of destabilization at the time the country was in dire need of peace positing that drawing participant from 24 junior secondary schools as pioneers of the program would be the best way of achieving the desired goal.

He pointed out that where such clubs were established a spectacular result had been achieved and that the mantra of catching them young has been made to be accorded high priority, considering the need for molding the character and behavior of the younger ones to detest violent extreme which could pose a threat to the local communities and beyond.

He said” starting from Kano State, we have planned to conduct a similar exercise in Kaduna and Kogi States being the last lap of this program. we have made every preparation to ensure that the schools we have selected for the exercise live up to expectations.  what we want from them is the greater result.”

Speaking earlier, the Executive Chairman, of Disputes Resolution and Development Initiative formerly known as Democratic Action  Group(DAG), Dr. Mustapha Muhammad Yahaya said creating peace clubs across schools in Kano State has become necessary considering the vast population of the State and major areas of concerned to be tackled effectively.

He called on teachers saddled with the task to widen the scope of the program for the students to be fullacquainteded with what was expected from them.