By Chukwu Daniel Ogbonna
The Universal Peace Federation, UPF, Lagos State chapter, has reiterated its commitment towards ensuring that peace-driven development becomes a main stay in Nigeria.
The commitment was re-echoed by Dr. Charles Onwunali, while presenting a lecture at this year’s UPF commemoration of the United Nations International Peace Day themed “Sustainable Development Goals; Building Blocks for Peace.”
Dr Charles while presenting the lecture at the Centre of Excellence in Multimedia and Cinematography, University of Lagos, noted that the aim of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), was to redirect global resources towards creating a more peaceful and successful society by tackling the root causes of social tensions and conflict in the society.
Charles also noted that social inequality has marred some of the successes attained by the SDGs as the gap between the rich and the poor has continued to widen within and among nations.
He said, “While the United Nations Development Programme claimed that in 2013, extreme poverty has been reduced by half, the glaring hunger and deprivation caused by conflicts and mini-wars in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia has created enormous challenges for the Global community to examine the pitfalls of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).”
Furthermore, highlighting the merging of the SDGs to an already existing MDGs, the UNILAG lecturer lauded the addition of peace, justice and reliable institutions in order to ensure meaningful development.
He said, “This is a tacit recognition and acceptance that peace is sine qua non for any form of development. Peace is not abstract; for it to endure, it must be built on social justice.”
Recommending a solution, Charles said the only way SDGs could achieve its goals is for every member of the social system to be carried along as this will engender sustainable development that will continue for a long time.
“To carry everybody along, there must be peace. To create enduring peace, the resources available in the social system must be equitably distributed.
“Development is not only about creation of wealth, equitable distribution of that wealth is imperative,” he explained.
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