6th April, 2019
Cardinal John Onaiyekan has said that effective dialogue has the potential of resolving all kinds of conflicts.
He also called on well meaning Nigerians to support programmes aimed at building peace across the country.
Onaiyekan said this on the sidelines of the Graduation ceremony for fellows of the 2018/2019 Cardinal Onaiyekan Foundation for Peace (COFP) Fellowship Programme on “Interreligious Dialogue and Mediation” in Abuja.
The fellowship had 35 fellows comprised of 18 Christians and 17 Muslims drawn from the six geopolitical zones.
They include 22 males and 13 females from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds in Nigeria.
“I’m sure there are many Nigerians when they hear that the Cardinal Onaiyekan foundation is giving a certificate to a Miyetti Allah secretary, they will say what is happening here.
“Yes! They should ask what is happening here. What is happening here means there is no such thing as an inevitable conflict.
“Every conflict can be resolved, once you are able to sit down together look at each other face to face, you will now realise that every human being is just exactly like you, like your brother, your cousin which is what you have seen.
“And I thank God this is happening in an organisation that bears my name. I will be happy to see more and more organisations like this that are set up.
“We got the money, the seed money from America although we raised local funds, my hope is that having proved that this formula is a viable formula, we will be able to reach out to Nigerians to give us the money to do it.
“The DHR foundation as we are told is a family foundation, its just a family that happen to be very rich and decided to spend their money doing good all over the world.
“Haven’t we got many rich families in Nigeria with billions buying houses in Dubai and never once thinking about doing good for the community. It’s a shame. I won’t even talk about government because this is one of the things the government should be supporting.’’
Mary Dalsin, Programme Associate, GHR foundation, who spoke to NAN expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the programme.
According to her, the impact of the programme was already yielding fruitful results in some communities were the fellows were drawn from.
She said the DHR foundation based in Minnesota, USA, is a family foundation that funds effort to bridge people, ideas and organisations.