President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, lamented that the crises in
some parts of the country has slowed down economic development. He
stated this while being presented with the 2013 Africa Peace Award from
the United Religions Initiatives URI, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to the president, internal stability is essential for the
development of the country saying that, "there can be no meaningful
economic development where people are fighting."
Jonathan said: "Even when countries are fighting at the end of the
day they will still come to the dialogue table to resolve. Problems
could hardly be resolved through the barrel of the gun. Even if you have
the most sophisticated weapon to fight, you will still come to
negotiate otherwise you can never live in peace.
"If you go to the Southern part of this country you hear about
kidnapping and if you go to the North you have the issue of Boko Haram.
For us to develop our country we must all embrace peace. There is no way
the government can perform magic when the people are shooting guns,
because economic growth and development is in the hands of the private
sector."
The President added: "There cannot be economic development without
peace. For you to develop economically there must be peace and political
stability. So the leadership of African Union and ECOWAS have changed
and we believe that we must help ourselves and help our states and
govern our states the way it should be governed. If there are crisis we
should intervene and that has been helping us significantly."
The president who dedicated the award to Nigerians promised that he
will continue to focus on providing the enabling environment in the
country for businesses to thrive.
He said: "This award is dedicated to my people and my country
Nigeria. We couldn't have been qualified for this award if my people did
not encourage me. In Nigeria God has given us that unique privilege to
be fairly more robust than some of our African countries and we are one
of the African countries that the whole work look up to, to assist in
one way or the other. So this award is for Nigeria and not for Goodluck
Jonathan.
"We would continue to do our best. For me as an individual, I will
continue to play my role in spite of the challenges. Let me use this
unique opportunity to call on all Nigerians and all the people of the
world to embrace peace. You cannot talk about development when you are
fighting," the President emphasised.
The Regional Director of URI, Ambassador Mussie Hailu while
presenting the award to the president said it was in recognition of
President Jonathan's immense contributions to religious harmony in
Nigeria and peace keeping operation under the United Nations.
According to him, "we have been following with great interest the
great role the President play in his country, West Africa and Africa as a
whole since he took office as President of Nigeria. We commend his
leadership qualities in West African sub region in particular as ECOWAS
Chairman and also lauded the current transformation agenda of his
administration."
