If somebody somewhere sees this article, please show it to the First Lady of our nation. She does not know me and probably, never will and although I have never met her in person, I feel as if I have known her all my one score year sojourn on this earth. I see her image in the media and read the numerous articles about her online which compels me to process reflexively all that I have read. As I ruminate, it becomes apparent that the title, “Mother of the Nation,” confers a huge burden of responsibility on the shoulders of the person who bears that appellation. This is more evident in trying times of national challenge such as the present scourge of militant insurrection confronting parts of our nation. It is well documented that the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, has used every public opportunity to preach the gospel of peace. This came to a crescendo early this year at a peace advocacy event, when she publicly changed her name to “Mama Peace.” In March this year, she sought to sensitize a most important but vulnerable demographic group – the Nigerian youths, when she organized a “National Youth Peace Concert” with the collaboration of the office of the Senior Special Assistant on Youth and Student Matters. I listened to her passionate entreaty on the various news channels as she cautioned thousands of young people at the occasion on the undesirability of being used as merchants of violence and instability. In August last year, it may be recalled that the First Lady collaborated with the National Council of Women’s Society to organize the Celebration of Nigerian Women for Peace and Empowerment. “Take the message of peace to your home, to your neighbourhood and to your community. Let peace flourish in our nation,” she told the women whom she described as, “Peace-makers and bridge-builders; key to sustainable stability in our society.”
It is in the same spirit of the quest for peace that the Women for Change and Development Initiative, an NGO founded by the First Lady, organized a nation-wide, Seven Days National Prayer and Fasting which started on Wednesday May 14, 2014 and ended on Tuesday May 20, 2014.
According to Princess Rabi Ibrahim, the Women for Change and Development Initiative National Coordinator, the seven-day fasting and prayer programme was part of the First Lady’s initiative to seek God’s divine intervention for the nation. She said that, “In moments of challenges, the power of prayer is most crucial and we have been supporting our nation and the missing Chibok girls with fasting and prayers.”
The seven-day event transcended religious and ethnic sentiments as Moslem and Christian groups prayed fervently for the nation in a bond of faith and unity of purpose.
At the international level, the various projects and programmes undertaken by Dame Jonathan as the President of the African First Ladies Peace Mission, AFLPM, takes her message of peace across the African continent and beyond. The African First Ladies Peace Mission has the mandate of conflict prevention and management, as well as, the making, keeping and building of peace through various medium, including civil, humanitarian and diplomatic action. AFLPM embarks on viable programmes that promote peace.
Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the Children of God. I urge the First Lady not to relent in her efforts; she must not be daunted by unprogressive comments; she must remain focused in her mission of advocating peace. We await your words that will infuse us with the virtue of tolerance, good neighborliness, compassion and peace. Violence begets violence but the advocates of peace receive the showers of blessings in its abundance and will be remembered on the right side of history by generations yet unborn. Well done Mama Peace.
Joy Bello sent this in from Benue State
