King Onunwor
According to the Black’s Law Dictionary (Nineth Edition), in page 1244, The word peace, is said to be a state of public tranquility; freedom from civil disturbance or hostility.
The term “peace” is used in the Holy Bible (New Testament) in different ways:(i) peace, as the absence of war or chaos, (ii)peace as a right relationship with God or with Christ; (iii) peace as a good relationship among people; (iv) and peace as an individual virtue or state, that is, tranquillity or serenity.
The Concept of peace as stated in the Quran, is the order (islah), and the command to reconcile conflicting people or groups. The object of peace is humanity as a whole. Peace aims to stop the conflict between human beings. Both reconcile directly between the conflict, as well as peace through the mediator.
The Traditional African worshippers in their own perspective, also understand peace, according to the ‘utu concept’ to mean the embodies of a non- exploitative, non-egoistic and non-idiosyncratic facet. In typical traditional African societies, tolerance and respect for differences was encouraged.
This was because African communities acknowledged that though people have differences, they could still live in harmony.
The international Peace Index creator, Steve Killelea AM, on why a new understanding of peace is not just desirable, but essential in the 21st century, explained that the challenges we face require cooperation on a scale unprecedented in human history.
In his view, peace is one of those terms that is frequently used, but elusive to define. That one tends to approach it via a fusion ofthinking, war (crisis ) against peace; you either have it, or you don’t.
This understanding of peace as the absence of violence or conflict, otherwise known as Negative Peace – is not wrong and can be useful. However, negative peace is an incomplete picture and leads to many misconceptions of how peace can be attained.
It therefore, diggtestes that once the guns fall silent, peace has been achieved. This, authomically forecloses the possibility for finding new approaches to peace-building and development. Once that extend beyond security and create the conditions necessary to restructure our societies so that they have the capacity to adapt and modify to our constantly changing environments.
It does not describe what creates a resilient peace, one that will not lapse back into violence, and one that is associated with many other social characteristics we consider to desirable, including stronger economic outcomes, better measures of well-being, and more sustainable environmental performance.
In a recent release , 15th edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 163 countries and independent territories by their relative levels of peacefulness each year, testifies to the changing nature of the threats to our systems.
That finding or report, further reveals a world in which the conflicts and crises that emerged in the past decade have begun to show or demonstrate a level of unpleasant experiences.
It is still too early to fully gauge the long-term effects of the pandemic on peace, but the changing economic conditions in many nations increases the likelihood of political instability and violent demonstrations.
Without peace, it will be nearly possible to achieve the levels of trust, cooperation and inclusiveness needed for societies to be resilient to shocks, manage disputes and adapt to changes in their environments.
Replicating these and other factors in all countries is vital, but to do so means being able to identify the factors that create and sustain peaceful societies to begin with.
Without this, it will not be possible to develop the programmes, create the policies or understand the resources required to build peaceful and resilient societies facing unprecedented global change.
Looking at peace from two perspectives, f Negative and Positive, while the negative stands for the absence of violence or fear of violence, the Positive, welcomes the attitudes, institutions and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies.
Positive peace also birth or supports a well-functioning government, low levels of corruption and strong business environment. Others include but not limited to, acceptance of the rights of others,equitable distribution of resources, free flow of information,high levels of human capital and good relationships with neighbours.
It also promotes a sort of measurable framework to gauge a country’s capabilities to absorb, adapt and recover from shocks, be they financial, ecological or societal. It , to some reasonable extent, gives meaning to the goals that a system needs to evolve too.
Interventions should nudge the system towards ever higher levels of Positive Peace, rather than creating radical change, which runs the risk of disrupting the fabric of society.
Human settings that Bank on Positive Peace consistently outperform comparable countries in real gross domestic product (GDP) growth countries improving in Positive Peace on average achieve three times higher GDP growth per annum than countries deteriorating in Positive Peace.
“One of the important qualities of Positive Peace is that it creates societies that are more resilient. In other words, better capable of adapting to their changing environments.”
Conflict Resolution commentators, in their argument, also described peace and conflict resolution as ‘the tripod of the world. That there can never be an alternative to the countries of the world’.
Some locals like I ( King Onunwor), who understand the meaning of the tripod stand as used to the Conflict experts above, know exactly how firm it holds the pot during cooking. No matter the heat of the fire, the stand, maintains it position.
That is how it is meant to be. People should not allow conflict or crisis to tear them there should be always a window for peaceful co-existence.
Take Rivers State for example, the state is blessed in every material particular. No Local Government Area is a desert or does any of the LGAs depend on another for survival.
Peace is just the needed tool to do the magic. If there is peace in the state, everyone will go about his/her lawful business without even rescourse to the political class. Reason being that every Rivers man believes in independence or self relience.
Now if we can agree this, the man to command the ‘magic broom’, is on the saddle. That man is the present Governor of the Rivers State in the person of Sir Siminalayi Joseph Fubara GSSRS. The state have never had it this way for sometime. A situation where some trends on its own begin to fade away without much push.
Let’s as a matter of urgency, as Rivers people, begin to think more on those things that can bind us together rather than the things that can tear us apart. I am pained that most people in the state who even hold high positions in the different places of worship can not give peace a chance.
The Holy Bible, Quran and the teachings of Traditional Worshippers support peace. If that is true and we all claim to be good ambassadors of the state, let’s preach and practice peace for the interest of all.
The Holy Bible in Psalm 30 v5 said ‘weeping may tharry for a night but joy cometh in the morning’ ( New King James Version) , partly suggesting that we must welcome peace after crisis or pains.***
