Story Written By Daniel Karlmax and Edited by Godwin Duru
Global Peace Foundation has enjoined Nigeria and other countries across the globe to work collectively in support of their governments as they put in place strategies to avert natural disasters.
The Foundation, citing Canada and U.S.A as countries that prioritize their citizens welfare amidst natural disasters, express said planning is key to addressing the problem.
The Country Director of Global Peace Foundation, Reverend John Joseph Hayab who stated this while speaking with Radio Nigeria ahead of the International Peace Day, noted that the organization was concerned about the challenges of climate change as it affects peace globally.
Drawing from the recent flood that ravaged the city of Maiduguri and other states in Nigeria, the country director described the menace as a common humanity problem affecting people irrespective of background.
He argued that as government puts measures and strategies to avert flood and other disasters, citizens also should commit themselves to supporting and embracing its programs and policies to achieve positive results.
According to him, Global Peace Foundation is working toward promoting common humanity, hence the need for collective effort and collaboration to tackle natural disasters that threaten peace.
“As human beings, we have common problems, natural disaster is one Common problem, and when it comes to us, it doesn’t segregate, so that’s why we want people to work together toward protecting and securing their environment”
“For us in global Peace Foundation, natural disasters are things we expect our government to take measures to prevent it, we are aware that we are going to have a lot of rain that would lead to flooding, measures need to be taken to ensure that this flood do not affect citizens, and if it’s going to, then citizens should be evacuated and moved away to safer locations”.
“In Canada and other parts of US where they used to have challenge of fire, when it’s about the season and time, strategies are not just being taken to ensure that the fire do not affect people, but instead, people are taken to a secure area” he said.
Joseph Hayab explained that, communities across the globe have natural disasters peculiar to their topography, noting also that proper planning and collaborative effort by citizens were key to averting the menace to guarantee peaceful coexistence.
The Country Director stressed that people must cooperate, work and live together toward protecting, and securing their environment by ensuring they face and address their environmental challenges together without discrimination.
“Sadly in this part of the world, we don’t put in place measures to avert that, and sometimes even when government is telling us to ensure that our drainage is in order so that water can pass, there’s this group of people who throw dirt into the drainages, the drainages get blocked and water cannot pass then it ends up affecting us-.
“Natural Disasters are not man made, So we must work collectively, just as we work to find peace, we must also work to support our government to address and protect ourselves from disasters”.
“For every continent and community, we know the challenges we have, when you look at the situation of the topography of your area, you’ll be able to know that you are either affected by drought, flood or whatever disaster, so you plan toward it, so the lack of planning is the problem”, said Rev. Hayab.
The clergyman noted that, the thematic areas of the foundation ranges from peace building, women empowerment to civic responsibilities and challenges of climate change that serve as threat to human existence among others.
Daniel Karlmax