The Borno State Government, with support from the British Council, has inducted 100 youth peace ambassadors to contribute to the restoration of normalcy as the state recovers from over 10 years of insurgency.

The state commissioner for information and internal security, Prof Usman Tar, conducted the induction ceremony on Saturday in Maiduguri.

Mr Tar explained that the youth were trained by the state government in partnership with the Peace Ambassador Centre for Humanitarian Aid and Empowerment,, a non-governmental organisation with support from the  British Council.

He said the idea was for the trained ambassadors to contribute towards peace-building and development in line with the ‘Borno Model’ designed to promote reconciliations.

The commissioner charged the youth to not only take the lead in peace-building and conflict management issues but also learn how to preach tolerance, irrespective of their religious or tribal affiliations.

He said, “Today, we are inaugurating the young peace ambassadors that will be going into society, trickling down the capacity for peace-building and tolerance that we have taught them. The outcome of this exercise is that we now have critical young minds that will serve as ambassadors of peace, go out and target specific communities, as well as teach the art of peace and conflict resolution.

”Other areas were conflict management, peacebuilding, and diplomacy so that society will be more tolerant, more engaging and, above all, will learn to live side by side with people of all faiths.’’

Earlier, the founder of PACHE, Ahmed Shehu, urged communities in the state to identify with youths by giving them the necessary support for maximum results.

“As a civil society, we thought we had to play our role in ensuring we had a stable society. We carefully selected young people and voices across all sectors, from the media to CSOs and academia and trained them to go back to the communities and change the narratives,” Mr Shehu said.

The highlight of the occasion was the presentation of the Peace Advocate Award to some people and organisations in Borno for their contributions to peace-building. 

(NAN)