By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
Towards proffering solutions on challenges around peace and nation building, the Bauchi State Chapter of Nigerian Institute of Public Relations(NIPR) on Thursday organised citizens summit on national integration, peace and security with critical stakeholders as participants.
A press statement signed and issued by the Chapter’s PRO Muslim Lawal, anipr and made available to our correspondent said the summit, which was held at ML Audu Auditorium, Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, was declared open by the State Governor, Bala Mohammed.
The Governor observed that bad governance is one of the factors responsible for the current spate of insecurity in the country.
Represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Barrister Ibrahim Kashim, the governor said good governance is necessary for peace and security to prevail in the polity.
“The convening of the Peace Summit for National Integration, Peace and Security by NIPR cannot have come at a better time than now as there is need to examine and interrogate the threat to the existence of our great country as a united indivisible entity.
“The unity in diversity that used to characterized peaceful coexistence among the various people of the country in good old days must be restored. It is my hope that this forum would provide credible and sustainable solutions to the challenges that are facing the unity, progress and development of our country.”
He said for a country like Nigeria that is characterized by ethnic and religious heterogeneity to develop, there must be a deliberate and concerted effort by the government to engender peaceful coexistence amongst the various groups in Nigeria.
The governor therefore pledged for continued partnership between the state government and the NIPR as professional image making and reputation building managers for the promotion of the laudable achievements of his administration.
In a key note address, NIPR President and Chairman of the Council, Malam Mukhtar Zubairu Sirajo insisted that, good communication is key to solving and resolving national issues.
The NIPR boss said the Institute decided to come up with the citizens summit on national integration, peace and security with a view to do the needful on the nature of relationship and understanding among diverse groups in the country for better and mutual understanding.
“As relations builder, NIPR has the necessary skills to bring back old days mechanism of resolving issues, by talking about current issues with a view to finding out how to solve them and that is why we came up with the idea of citizens summit so that our people can once again come together and utilize the opportunity positively for the benefit off all.
“In public relations, we speak as it is so that we can really understand the situation. You will agree with me that relationship of our people in this country are instead of becoming stronger we seems to be seeing a negative perception and it is believe that diversity is a positive phenomenon and therefore we must harness it for collective development.
According to Mukhar Sirajo, with good understanding, Nigeria can harness its resources for the benefit of the citizenry and stressed the need for all hands to be on deck towards building a a progressive society for better tomorrow.
“The duty of every generation is to ensure a better society than the one inherited. It is a time to lay a foundation of ensuring we build a progressive society for better society.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the occasion, Ambassador Jibrin Dada Chinade pointed out that, NIPR as a convergence of professionals working in and out of government, playing the roles of analysing trends, predicting their consequences, counselling leaders on how best to implement planned programmes of action for the benefit of Nigeria and Nigerians, must be appreciated by coming up with the citizens summit on national issues.
“I want to use this platform to appeal to governments at states and federal levels to attach premium to the outcome of this Summit, because the NIPR is just a professional tailor whose only interest is to stitch together the pieces of national integration, peace and security for national rebirth.”
Our correspondent reports that the summit attracted participants from professional bodies, the Academia, Civil Society Organizations, Security Agencies and Students of political science and other related courses.