They argued that the demands, which has brought mild unrest in some regions, could be achieved through dialogue, rather than through violence which often leads to losing of lives and property in the country.
The group made the call at an event which held in Lagos with the theme: “Significant of peace and unity in Nigeria,’ put together to commemorate Nigeria’s 57th independent anniversary.
The youths also urged government at all levels to keep their quota of responsibilities in order to ensure adherence of peace and unity among the citizens, especially the youth.
Director, Prisoners Right Advocacy Initiative (PRAI) and 2017 Mandela-Washington Fellow, Ahmed Adetola-Kazeem, while addressing the congregation at the event, warned agitators to desist from uttering hate speeches while demanding for their rights in the country.
Adetola-Kazeem also cautioned against overheating polity with various hate moves, imploring Nigerians not to share every post on social media because a lot of them were written to cause discord amongst the populace.
According to him, every Nigerian needs to be armed with correct information and shun gullibility, saying every human being possessed innate weapons to fight intolerance and hate and should use them.
“We all possess innate weapons to fight intolerance and hate, let’s use them. Most of the people sponsoring and leading the clamour for war will jet out of the country if it happens and the common man who has blindly followed them would be made to suffer,” he warned.
Also speaking, Publisher, Checkout Magazine, and a United Kingdom (UK) based journalist, Lekan Fatodu, said pockets of violence within the country, which was due to agitation from the regions for secessions, restructuring, and others, was an indication that it was time to make peace the country’s national mantra.
“It’s high time we made peace a national mantra in Nigeria given the current agitation for secession, devolution of power, resource control, restructuring and other concepts that are clearly threatening the unity, stability, and peace of the nation,” he said.
Fatodu opined that after making peace the new mantra, the Federal, state and local governments must embark on a strategy that would gradually inculcate in every citizen the need to embrace good behaviours and harmonious relationship.
“And the government must adopt the all important strategy of gradually changing opinions, quietly eroding primordial thinking and slowly instilling new ideas that are based on socio-economic and political justice, trust, hope and gains for all Nigerians regardless of tribes, tongues, backgrounds and political affiliations.
“Citizens, through the viable and brilliant platform like NaijaDay, also need to rededicate themselves to the cause of one and better Nigeria and should continually galvanise thoughts and influences that will help in delivering the Nigeria of our dreams,” he added.
Director, Center for Human Rectitude, Yusuf Aweda, in his contribution, appealed to clerics in the country to use religious teachings to ensure the protection of humanity, regardless of tribes, religion, and ethnicity.
Aweda also tasked religious leaders to use the alters in protecting lineage and encourage members to marry one another with morality to worship the supreme creator of all.
“Protection of lineage leads to good home, good homes beget adorable communities, good communities make good states, good states make a good nation,” he said.
He, however, warned that religion should not be used as a mechanism to promote corruption to steal public funds or frustrate government efforts in eradicating corruption, saying, a nation that failed to protect its commonwealth could turn a barren nation and may never grow productively to influence the society with
great values.
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