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Bauchi State SSG, Barrister Ibrahim Kashim
By Akanji Alowolodu, Bauchi
Bauchi State Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir has hailed the State Chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations(NIPR) for conducting a citizens’summit on national integration, peace and security with critical stakeholders as participants.
While declaring the summit opened at the ML Audu Auditorium, Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, the Governor, observed that, bad governance is one of the major factors responsible for the current spate of insecurity across the country.
The Governor who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Barrister Ibrahim Kashim, said that good governance is necessary for peace and security to prevail in the polity.
Bala Mohammed stressed that peace and security are required for harmonious coexistence among the people as it is a basic ingredient for national integration.
According to the Governor, “The convening of the Peace Summit for National Integration, Peace and Security by NIPR cannot have therefore 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”.
He added that, “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 further said that 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 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.
According to him, “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”.
He also said that, “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”.
Mukhar Sirajo stressed that with good understanding, Nigeria can harness its resources for 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.
He also said that, “Rather than to build a progressive society, we are always thinking at yesterday, rather than taking forward to better days. Our yesterdays are always better than our todays and we can’t build a progressive society that ways” .
He then said that, “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, counseling 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.
He said that, “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.”
