To mark the 2024 World international Peace Day, UN Harmony Week Winner, Pastor Yohanna Buru honoured monarchs and ambassadors in Kaduna communities for promoting peaceful coexistence and tolerance
Dr. Buru is the the winner of the United Nations World International Interfaith Harmony Week 2022. He is also the National President of Peace Revival and Reconciliation Foundation of Nigeria.
He honoured three peace ambassadors in Barnawa, Tudun Wada and Kakuri Gwari/Makera communities, all of Kaduna South Local Government Area.
Buru said the event was to honour some citizens identified as peace builders who playing critical roles in maintaining peaceful coexistence their different communities.
The awardees included the District Head of Barnawa, Alhaji Kabiru Zubairu. He got his award for strengthening relationship and peaceful coexistence among the diverse religious and ethnic groups in his domain. Sarkin Gabas of Tudun Wada, Kaduna, Alhaji Gambo Ibrahim was honoured for pushing for the establishment of security outpost in Tudun-Wada, while Mallam Yusuf Abbas of Kakuri Gwari/Makera got his recognition for his efforts at peace building in his community.
Buru called for more hands on deck to entrench lasting peace in Kaduna State.
Sarkin Gabas has been steering young people away from drug abuse and other social vices, while actively contributing to the establishment of a security outpost in the area.
He continues to educate residents of Kaduna on the importance of rejecting violence and crime. His peace initiatives extended to engaging women and youth in underprivileged neighborhoods, where he advocates for religious tolerance, love, and togetherness, and laying the foundation for a brighter future. His work as a member of the Community Peace Observers highlights his dedication to creating lasting harmony.
The third awardee, Abbas, who is the Chairman of the Association of Peace Builders, expressed grateful for the recognition.
He said the group’s office, sited at the Kakuri Gwari Makera Kasuwan Monday, has enjoyed cordial relationship among its members and the community as both the Christians and Muslims have been living and conducting their daily activities peacefully.
Abbas said: “Here, we have Christians and Muslims who are businessmen, traders, security personnel among us who are doing whatever they can to promote peace in the community. During festivity periods like Sallah, Christmas and New Year we celebrate together, exchange pleasantries, and advice ourselves on the way forward in seeing that peace continue to reign in our communities.
“Today, I feel honoured and happy with the award. I did not know that one day someone would come here and recognise what we are doing and honour us, just like the way I have been awarded. So, I thank the organisation for this honour and I promise to do more on what I have been doing”.
He urged other communities in the state to emulate what the Kakuri Gwari/Makera communities had been doing to sustain peace in it’s area. He, however, cautioned that whatever others intended to do must be in sincerity, citing his community’s own case, where they put in their personal resources to carryout whatever programmes they intended to do.
The Deputy Imam of Juma’at Central Mosque Kakuri, Mallam Shuaibu Adamu said the peace being enjoyed in Kakuri, among the different ethnic and religious groups in the area was achieved through dint of hard work, commitment, sincerity of purpose among others.
