Leadership (Abuja)
Hajiya Bilkisu Yusuf
15 May 2008
opinion
I sat alone in the corner of the hall fidgeting with my computer and wondering when Nigerians will learn to keep to time.
Development workers who should know that time is a useful resource for the work they do seem to promote the "African time" culture of starting events late and wasting valuable time that could be used for other worthy endeavours. I watched with interest as participants arrived and took their seats to wait for the commencement of the three day interfaith dialogue and mediation training for women leaders. The Muslim women walked to my side of the table, sat down and we exchanged greetings and started chatting and catching up with development activities in our various states. As they came in, the Christian women sat opposite us clustered around the National Chairperson of the women's wing of CAN. We exchanged greetings across the table which was arranged in an oval shape to ensure eye contact and facilitate communication. The organisers of the event, the Kaduna based Interfaith Mediation Centre IMC designed it as a dialogue and mediation workshop for women from faith based organisations. The participants were drawn from the state branches of the Federation of Muslim Women's Associations in Nigeria FOMWAN and the Women's Wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria CAN.
Before the workshop began, I drew the attention of Mr. Dangiwa who is one of the organizers, to the segregated sitting and suggested that as an ice breaker, the women should be mixed so that we can get to know each other. He told me he had noticed it too and a random mixing of participants was done. There was self introduction of workshop participants who also told us their expectations from the workshop.
In their welcome address, the joint Executive Directors of the IMC, Imam Nurayn Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye welcomed participants and underscored the importance of engaging in inter faith activities as a means of promoting peace in our society. They expressed their appreciation to the Heinrich Boll Foundation, the supporters of the workshop and urged the participants to endeavour to impart the knowledge and skills they would acquire from the workshop to all their members.
Two papers were presented to set the tone for the workshop. The first, titled the Role of Christian Leaders in Security Management in Nigeria was presented by the National Chairperson of the Women's wing of CAN, Barrister Regina Chizube Okafor. The paper stated that a woman, but particularly a mother is by her very nature a security provider. It assessed the security situation in the country and listed some issues that require urgent attention. They include armed robberies and rape of victims, political crimes; inter communal conflicts, murder, cultism, kidnapping and abduction, hooliganism, Advance Fee fraud 419 etc. Barrister Chizube identified the causes of insecurity as pervasive poverty, materialism, government's indifference to complaints of insecurity, an ineffective police force, a high rate of unemployment, drug abuse particularly among the youth and ineffective parenting.
The paper said parents have a responsibility to train their children and quoted the bible "train a child in the way he should be and he can never depart from it". Barrister Chizube lamented that women today are more interested in making money than investing their time in the proper upbringing of their children. To ensure adequate security for life and property, she recommended that parents should provide sound moral upbringing and basic needs of children and create employment.
My paper was titled: Why Peace is Important to Women: An Islamic Perspective. The paper defined conflict and peace underscoring the fact the peace is universally acknowledged as a prerequisite for the development of any nation. Development defined simply is a change or transformation into a better state. It is 'the capacity of a people to within a defined area over a defined period of time to manage and induce change; that is to predict, plan, understand and monitor change and reduce or eliminate unwarranted change". The paper stated that peace is important to women because of the severe impact of conflict on women in the form of systematic murder, torture, sexual abuse including rape. Women and children always constitute about 80% of people in refugee camps. Sadly women also do get involved as combatants in violent conflicts and cases of women combatant who participated in perpetrating atrocities were cited.
The paper made a link between Islam and peace stressing that Islam means peace and the Qur'an traced the common origin of human beings to Adam and Eve. The hadith also made it clear that "no one has a superiority over another except by piety or good deeds." It examined the Islamic code of war which specifies that you can only 'fight those who fight you, but transgress not the limit. Truly, Allah loves not the transgressors." The religion was confronted with severe hostility as the idolaters of Makkah and later the twelve clan of Jews in Madina conspired to sabotage its spread. Islam is practical in its approach to conflicts in that it does not enjoin 'turning the other cheek" to aggressors. A Muslim is prohibited from initiating aggression but when attacked a Muslim responds .However even in the response one should not exceed the limit of harm done and if one forgives and leaves all in the hands of Allah it is rewarding.
Islam enjoins patience in adversity, justice, equity and promotion of peace. The Qur'an states "So make reconciliation between your brothers and fear Allah, that you may receive mercy". Another chapter states 'By the time, mankind is at a loss except those who have faith, who do good, enjoin each other to be truthful and are patient'. In his last sermon the Prophet Muhammad (saw) called on humanity 'Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you." He urged Muslims to spread this message to all future generations of Muslims. In line with this injunction Muslims reproduce this last sermon in various forms as souvenir for distribution at weddings and other events.
After the paper presentation, there was a lively debate. One of the participants was concerned that existence of an Islamic Code of War will encourage people to go to war. In my response I highlighted the major issues addressed in the code and stressed that they would protect non combatants, facilitate peace rather than violence. Among the issues in the Islamic code are as follow:
Children, women, the aged and sick are spared in war.
Kindness is enjoined on prisoners of war.
No attack on hospitals and monasteries
No Scorched earth policy of destruction of trees, wells and polluting of water sources
Rape not only as a weapon of war, but even in peace time attracts capital punishment.
After the interactive session, the workshop focused on understanding conflict, its causes, prevention, mitigation and intervention using other approaches. It also explored communication and negotiation strategies as means of preventing conflicts. In a communiqué issued at the end of the workshop, the women leaders condemned the various religious crises that occurred in the country which claimed the lives of innocent citizens. They resolved that such conflicts will no longer occur as a result of better understanding among the participants at the workshop. The women also resolved to
Act as a catalyst in the struggle to achieve lasting peace in Nigeria
Put in place structures that will ensure a sustainable process of identifying, preventing, mitigating and/or managing conflicts
Evolve a network to explore partnerships and collaboration with organisations with similar objectives to ensure active participation of women in peace building and peaceful coexistence in Nigeria and at the International level
Appreciate the establishment of the Nigeria Inter Religious Council NIREC and urged the Council to recognise and work with WOWICAN and FOMWAN as national interfaith women's network with similar objectives.
To organise continuous training and sensitization activities at various levels and appealed to the media to give adequate publicity to such activities
All participants would serve as ambassadors of peace in their statements and actions in their various communities.
The communiqué indeed built on previous activities that the IMC and other organisations had organised in Kaduna after the unfortunate ethno- religious crises that erupted in that hitherto peaceful city in the year 2000. One of these was the trauma counseling workshop for Muslim and Christian women which took place at Zakariya Prestigious Hotel. During the workshop, the women explored the impact of the crises on women and made recommendations for enhancing the role of women in peace building.
On its part, another Kaduna based organisation, ABANTU for Development organised a reflection seminar on peace while the ABANTU Regional Office for West Africa ABANTU/ROWA based in Ghana, published a guideline on Gender Responsive Peace Keeping and Reconstruction in Africa. I shared copies of these with the organisers and some of the participants. A few days later, NIREC's quarterly meeting held in Maiduguri. That meeting and it's outcome will form the subject of my write up next week.
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