By Amos Odie, Yenagoa
The Kukah Centre has appealed to political leaders, political parties and other stakehoders to embrace peace, peace building initiatives and social integration and move forward now that the governorship election in Bayelsa State has come and gone.
The call was made at a conference organized by the Centre in Yenagoa, tagged, ‘From Polls to Peace,’ with the theme ‘Strengthening Social Integration and Peace Initiative in Bayelsa State.’
Speaking at the conference, the Project Manager, The Kukah Centre, Emmanuel Nkanta, described the event as a follow up to the November 2023 Peace Accord that was signed in the state ahead of the elections to commit candidates, political parties and key stakehoders to ensure peace before, during and after the elections.
He stressed that the issues of mistrust and dissatisfaction arising from the outcome of the electoral process informed the conference, to rebuild trust, create confidence to ensure that social cohesion and peace building is achieved and protected.
His words: “The elections may have come and gone yet there may be issues of trust deficit, issues that may have arisen at a point and may not augur well to every party involved, therefore, the purpose of this programme is to remind members that we need to rebuild trust, create confidence, to ensure that peace building is properly protected and that we have no state other than Bayelsa State.
“In essence what we have done today is propelling the ideals of peace building and social cohesion not just for political parties and their candidates but for youths, women, religious leaders and traditional rulers because of the moral powers that they have to ensure that we propelled the ideals of peace.”
In her remarks, the Project Manager, National Peace Commute, NPC, Vicham Wazidi, said the idea of the conference was to come back to get the perception of the people after the election and see how to improve the electoral process and peace at large.
She said: “To address issues of mistrust it is important that we come back and sit on the table. Yes, things didn’t go the way we wanted but elections will still happen and we still need to cast our votes, because it is democratic system and there is no democracy without elections. So, it’s important that as much as we are discouraged and feel hurt by the electoral system and we still don’t lose hope and know that at the end of the day the peace we want, we will be able to achieve at the long run.”
