NO DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT PEACE

 By Levi Okoroja

 

Introduction:

This article aims at enhancing community development using peace as a tool. There is nothing called development in a community where peace is static. Peace is a pre-requisite for development as a whole because it creates an enabling environment for the fundamentals of a society’s progress: human capital formation, infrastructure development, markets subject to the rule of law, and so on (Roshan and Sarah, 2011).

 Although the word "PEACE" has a clear meaning for most people, ‘peaceful act’ and ‘peaceful individual’ can have different interpretations. In conflict to the common assumption, the state of the peaceful person is not one we can achieve only through good deeds. This state is obtained through perceptions that result in making peace with God, with the physical universe, with one’s self, and with the others. It means that the peaceful individual is at peace with God, with every single constituent of the universe, with one’s self, and with others, and has no conflict with any of them. Consequently, the individual’s thoughts, actions and words are also formed on the basis of this internal and multilateral peace. In other words, the peaceful act is an act that brings humans closer to peace (Muhammad, 2014).

Happiness through peace is an expected end point in all human pursuits. Community peace building is both a social and structural process. It seeks to alleviate conflict and promote condition that reduce community vulnerability to violence from both internal and external causes.

Community development is a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems. RM Sail opines that Community development is a conscious technique or a process to solve social and structural change problems. A process that enables communities to collectively confront and act on their common values and problems.

 

                 RELEVANCE OF PEACE TO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

As I earlier asserted that there is nothing called development in a community where peace is static. Peace enriches our communities and individual lives, as it directs us to embrace diversity and support one another to our capacity levels. Through caring, generosity, and fairness, we provide a conducive environment for attaining a sustainable, just, meaningful, vibrant, and fulfilling personal and community life. The roles of peace can be seen in the followings;

 

                 > PEACE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The target of entrepreneurs are to satisfy their customers and to make a profit at the end of business transaction. It is undoubtedly that entrepreneurs are vital in creating of new enterprises that amplifies and energizes the community economy.  But in a situation whereby his target of making a profit is not foreseen, his interest is automatically discouraged. The interaction of entrepreneurs with a peaceful environment plays a vital role on the factors of location and culture on business establishment (Cynado, 2012).

Meanwhile, any Community that has an image of insecurity, a culture of conflict occurrence and reoccurrence will not be able to attract investment.  In this sense peace therefore is a basic requirement to our existence and building attractive culture which will attract investors and therefore promotes Community development. For instance, in a community that has a mini-market seeking an opportunity to enlarge it, must maintain peace and security of the environment in such away that there will be no frequence occurrence and reoccurrence of stilling goods and breaking of people's shop at night in order to promote entrepreneurs interest and enhance investments which is the Paramount ingredients for a market boom.  

Another good example is the case of Maidugiri Township in Northern Nigeria.  The town was known for its major trade on fish stocks, and other live stocks like cattle, sheep and goat.  In April 2011, the peaceful nature of the city changed with the constant menace of the dissident Islamic militant group known as Bokoharam who claim to repudiate Western education. This is as a result of conflicts within the nation.  The activities of the group resulted in bombing of several strategic locations like churches, markets, hotels and schools.  The dastard activities of this group continued unstopped even with the presence of military personnel sent to the area by the Federal Government of Nigeria.    The ugly effect of these activities of the Bokoharam sect is that it polluted the business environment and planted fear and sense of insecurity on the residence of Maidugiri.  In the midst of insecurity, traders began to relocate to a safer place.  Those who abandoned their stores closed it on the hope that things shall return to normalcy.  An interview with Clement Iheanacho vowed never to travel to Maidugiri for any reason (Ezeogidi, 2012).  The city which was well known for hospitality was turned to unpeaceful and dead zone.

The implication of these crises is that interest in social and business activities are drastically minimized. The peaceful atmosphere automatically disappeared giving room to negative peace with its characteristics mutual mistrust, suspicion and lack of beneficial out come.

 

           > PEACE AND COMMUNITY LEADERS

In my experience from secondary School down to University level, I can boldly attest to the fact that students who do not love or in other words have peace with a particular teacher/lecturer hardly comprehend his/her teachings, and therefore can not harness the hidden knowledge that could help promote their learning skills in the field. In the other hand, a teacher/lecturer who does not have peace with the students hardly pass good knowledge to them, and therefore dislodging the prima vision of teaching. In the contest of Community setting, a community seeking development without peace between the leaders and their followers is like pouring water in an endless hole with the aim of getting it filled up.

Psychological and physiological conflict among the leaders and their followers lead to discouragement from having creative thinking on how individual skills could help in promoting Community development.

Community conflict leads to insecurity, corruption and wrong information flow that causes internal and external crises. In this sense Community peacebuilding ought to be a paramount pursuit of every rural leaders who seek development in their communities.

 

            > PEACE AND SECURITY

Peace and security is an essential factor of human life. A peaceful and secure environment is critical to every society since it affects all aspects of economic and social development in a society, and is a necessary bases to the realization of human rights. Security is one of the factors that promote economic viability of a community by attracting investments due to peaceful environment. A community that lacks peace certainly suffers insecurity. Peace and security work hand in hand. A society without peace lacks password, thereby giving chance for enemies to penetrate and create conflicts between the leaders and their followers. In this sense, it is good to say that 'there is no security without peace and there is no peace without security'.

 

        WAYS TO DEVELOPING AND PROMOTING PEACE

There are many paths to climbing a mountain; similarly, there are many paths through which a commitment to peace can be used to strengthen oneself and our community. There are approaches one can take as an individual, a family, an organization, or a community, or general society. Some of these are simple, while others require more commitment and resources. Some of the ways include;

 

> Finding peace within

Many maintain the importance of establishing peace within oneself in order to bring about peace in the community. Quelling the tendency to be at war with oneself, and with those closest to us, can be among the most rewarding, if difficult, accomplishments. You could start by acknowledging your worth and your flaws – we all have both. With that acceptance, show compassion toward yourself, and seek out strategies and supports best suited to you and your circumstances. Strive for humane understandings and harmonious relations in your own daily life. Learn about and use constructive ways to manage differences and resolve conflicts. Practice forgiveness and acts of kindness.

It is believed that when you have peace within yourself, it becomes easy to make peace with those around you and down to the community level.

 

 > Living Peaceably with others

As individuals, we need to recognize the extent to which all of us are interdependent. It behooves us to direct our energy and resources toward supporting, not harming, one another. The person we dismiss or even hate today may be connected in ways we don't realize to our own well-being. You can make a tremendous difference by welcoming others into your life and community. This starts with gaining an awareness of those you may not have thought about who are new to the community, or simply new to you. They may be at work, at schools you or your children attend, down the street, or in isolated pockets of your community.

 

 > Seeking reconciliation

Many of us must confront having been harmed, either directly or through a history of harms done to our family or people. There is a choice to be made: to exact revenge, or to seek justice and reconciliation. By separating the deed from the whole person, we can begin to forge connections and to heal. Empathy can arise when we acknowledge that we might have acted in a negative way under the same circumstances, or by recognizing that people are multidimensional and can change and grow.

 

>  Paying attention to the ways that language and channels of communication are used to support conflict and violence. The lives of others may be devalued by public rhetoric and media reports that reduce moral concern for them. Beware that public beliefs may be shaped to condone violence against another group and cast aggression in a morally positive frame.

 

> Recognising that social inequalities are unjust and fuel misery, conflict and violence. Attune yourself to the social conditions that undermine individual and collective well-being such as poverty and discrimination. Advocate for equalities in human rights, health care, opportunities, safety and security.

 

> Developing your understanding of the frames of mind that promote conflict and violence against another group. The perception that another group threatens our well-being, a sense of uncertainty about our safety and security, the belief that our own group is superior to another group are active factors that destroy peace in a community.

 

 

Summary

Happiness is the meaning, the purpose of life and the whole aim of human existence. A community that wants to live in happiness through development must learn to promote peace through fighting against corruption, injustice, wrong information flow, Denying of human rights etc. They must also promote a peaceful environment that attracts investments for economic development.

 

Reference:

Cynado C.N.O. Ezeogidi. (2012), the relevance of peace to economic development and

     national building. A journal of humanity and social science, 4(6), 32-33.

 

Muhammad Ali and Maryam Dehghan. (2014), Definition of peace and its different types.

     A journal of social and behavioral science. 114(8), 56-61.

 

Roshan P. and Sarah J. (2011), peace as a pre-reqiusite for development.

     Peace insight, article blog.