ZAMAN TARE Meets With Barakallahu, Mando Communities, Ahead Of Int’I Peace Day

By Frederick Peters, KADUNA

NEWSDAILYNIGERIA– The Zaman Tare Team has had a joint meeting with Barakallahu and Mando communities of igabi local government area of Kaduna state as part of activities to celebrate the 2021 International Day of Peace in grand style.

The meeting which had the theme” Recovering Better For An Equitable And Sustainable World” was held at Barakallahu on Monday, attracted Religious and traditional leaders, representatives of both communities, Women and Youths participants, who were also thrilled to arts exhibitions, Musical/ Speech presentations and lots more

Speaking the Field Officer, Zaman Tare Project, Mr Innocent Okechukwu Madukwe, states what informed the meeting ” its part of our initiative to celebrate the International Peace Day this year, what we did is to see how we can do it local government by government by bringing the two communities together to exchange ideas.

He said the coming together will help them interact, integrate and understand one another since they are from the same local government ” that is why we pegged them according to local governments, for them to come together to interact, know each other and to understand each community’s concept, to learn and take home” he stressed

He further said the celebration is also festival of Arts, ” for us in Zaman Tare , it is part of our project, which will run from now to Thursday, at the grand finale at the Kaduna state university, where we will have dignitaries, the communities, and where we will all have the festival of arts and international peace Day celebration proper”

According to him the Artists and performers at the event are beneficiaries of the special grants by Zaman Tare project based on their chosen themes adding ” we can see creativity in what they are doing to create harmony, tolerance and living together; we really thank God” he added

Similarly, the Village head of Barakallahu, represented by the Majindadin Barakallahu, Alhaji Yakubu Adamu, speaking in Hausa, said his boss is unavoidably absent, and he has asked him to extent his best wishes to the sponsors EU and other partners and all members of the team from Mando, meeting with their Barakallahu counterparts.

According to him, the impact of Zaman Tare project to religious, sociocultural, family life and peaceful living is unprecedented and should be appreciated and sustained, thereby praying that God will bless them (Zaman Tare) and grant all participants safe returns back home.

In the same vein, the Pastor of CGG, Barakallahu, Prophet Sule Anthony Akochi, while describing the outcome of the meeting, said, ” it has been quite explosive, interactive, joyful and eventful ” it is a moment that cannot be forgotten in a hurry and we hope for more of this kind of a wonderful event again”

While describing the level of the milestone of achievements,, development and improvement at the meeting as quite overwhelming, he said the focus now is on what can be done to sustain a high level of tolerance, togetherness, peace and progress to move the state and nation forward, adding that the essence is to promote peaceful coexistence between of people of all faiths.

On his part, the Youth Leader, Zaman Tare, Barakallahu, Ibrahim Zubairu yuguda, describing the meeting a success added that there’s nothing to do, but to thank God ” each time we meet here we learn and benefit a lot on the need to love and respect our neighbours and avoiding any form of discrimination

” today’s initiative is a joint meeting between Mando and Barakallahu communities and is aimed at meeting and interacting and understanding ourselves to build peaceful relationship across communities, cultures and faiths” he stated

On her part, the women leader of CAN, Mando, Mrs Sarah Luka, says how it feels ” I feel good that we are all talking about peace and l believe the Lord will unite us together, because if we understand each other, we’ll move forward.

According to her, we have to let love lead, only then can we meet and do things together adding ” am seeing hope on the issue of Peace, because we that are here, we have united ourselves together, we have no differences ( Barakallahu/Mando) communities, we are together and we are the same” she reiterated.

The Art exhibitor and one of the beneficiaries of project grant by Zaman Tare, Mr Gabriel Olumodeji, noted that his presentation depicts ” the beauty in our diversity and the preaching of Peace, respect, understanding and love for each other as a people

He maintained that, we need to understand our differences, respect them and only then will we relate properly with one another ” we are tired of living in resemblance of Peace, let’s act the Peace itself ” He then charged religious leaders to preach truth to their adherents as we should not allow religion to divide us, adding that his 4 paintings though different conveyed the same message of Peace.

Similarly, a Music Peace Ambassador, Margaret Thomas aka Amazing Make, shortly after presenting two songs, said the first song is on Zaman Tare/ living together, despite our languages, with a call for all to desist from religious conflicts; while the other also talked about the need of living together, but with a strong message against fake news on the social media.

ZAMAN TARE is a project of Caritas Nigeria, Funded by European Union, (EU) in partnership with CAFOD and DREP, and it is presently operating in Kaduna and Jos in Nigeria and Niger Republic.