Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah and a group, Global Peace Foundation have decried the situation where Nigerians lived with mental challenges and called on government to provide support systems that would bring succour in such cases.
Speaking at the Catholic Resource Centre, Durumi Abuja, during a one-day conference on “Trauma Care, Social Cohesion and the Role of Religious Leaders as Agents of Nation Building,Kukah who was the Special Guest of Honour at the event noted that virtually all Nigerians are traumatized considering that they live in a traumatized environment.
He said that Nigerians were challenged with mental health at various stages and emphasized the need for support systems from both the government, CSOs, and anyone who can provide it.
According to him, “the sense of community has been suspended; fundamental issues like trust have become scarce commodities largely because of what the society has become.”
He called for the aggregate of interest of values for the state to resolve all contradictions, stressing that banditry is one of the most terrible things that has happened to the nation with priests and cleric across religions being targeted by kidnappers in the country as the church is now in solidarity with the nation in its battle with insurgency.
He called on all victims to retain their state of sanity and put bitterness behind them.
The Country Director, of Global Peace Foundation Nigeria (GPFN), Rev. John Joseph Hayab, called for the collaboration of religious leaders with CSOs and other stakeholders towards enhancing the sustenance of peace in Nigeria.
He noted that the religious leaders have a role to play in nation-building, urging them to rise to the occasion and use their God-given platforms to provide care, preach social cohesion, and contribute to peaceful coexistence in the country.
The Country Director also spoke at the Catholic Resource Centre, Durumi Abuja, during a one-day conference on “Trauma Care, Social Cohesion and the Role of Religious Leaders as Agents of Nation Building”.
The program was organized by Nigerian KAICIID Fellows in collaboration with Global Peace Foundation Nigeria, Cardinal Onaiyekan Foundation for Peace, the Interfaith Mediation Centre, and O-Trauma Victims Initiative.
Hayab felicitated and identified with all victims of the numerous traumatic experiences in the country particularly at the hands of bandits, kidnappers, and terrorists.
He lamented that people have lost touch with their common humanity and that it is only by embracing their common humanity that true and lasting peace could be found, stressing that it was the reason why Global Peace Foundation Nigeria started preaching that human beings are members of one family under God, irrespective of any difference.
Rev. Hayab stressed the need for interfaith collaboration in the quest for social cohesion and nation-building, calling on religious leaders to collectively confront and address the challenges being faced by society by providing shelter for the traumatized people to lean on.
“Trauma and other security challenges faced by people in our societies are human experiences that require religious collaborations to tackle them. Unfortunately, religion, ethnicity, and other lines of the divide have encroached into our humanity with detrimental effects, faithful of all religions should collaborate to ensure sanity in society,” he said.
He called on religious leaders and CSOs to continue in their efforts of collaboration and building a network of peacebuilders to salvage the nation and urged that peacebuilding engagements should go beyond town hall meetings to the grassroots and local communities to promote love, peace and tolerance, respect and civic responsibilities among rural dwellers.
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