Mr. Rights Blog

The hate we instigate against each other will not consume the land we live on, the tribe we belong or the religion we practice, it would only  consume us, the people, irrespective of tribe, region or religion. Although, I may not be able to tell you how we could solve the herdsmen problem, but i know how we won’t ever solve it. Instigating hate against each other will never solve the problem. This is something we all know, yet we continue to do the same thing over and over again. That's bad. Some myopic people are quick to claim that division is a way out. But what do they know? I will only refer them to India and Pakistan. India and Pakistan have hated each other for more than 70years. Here is why. The British colonized Indian for more than 200 years and Indians weren’t happy about it. All the people’s rage were directed at the British and to put stop to such rage, British had an idea, ‘’divide and rule’’. What does that mean? Muslims against Hindu’s, against Sikhs, ag...

Foundation for Peace Professionals (FPP), an independent Non-Governmental Organization for Professional Peace Advocacy, Research and Conflict Transformation received with great honour, our nomination for the NCMG prestigious Peace Award in the Institutional Peacebuilders category. The 2017 edition of this award category was won by the #BringBackOurGirls movement led by former Minister of Education and 2019 Presidential Candidate, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili. Negotiation and Conflict Management Group (NCMG) that was incorporated in Nigeria in 1996 translated due to global demands into an international brand with major focus on promoting and advocating for world peace and conflict management within the Africa continent. The NCMG thus became NCMG International as approved by its Board of Governors with its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland in 2012 and has been on the vanguard of ADR development in Africa, and continues to advance the frontiers of this relatively new industry through collabor...

Doctor is basically a title for teachers or scholars. It was derived from the Latin word doceō (I teach). Ironically, it has been observed that the use of Doctor’s title is confusing in today’s world. For example, if someone is addressed as doctor today, no one can properly predict their profession or qualification. This is so because in a general sense, there are three (3) majorly recognized bearer of the Doctor’s title in Nigeria. We have the Medical Doctors, Academic doctors (PhD) and honorary Doctors. Although, there are other bearers of Doctors title, but in Nigeria, these are the 3 mostly recognized and used in public space. From the laymen point of view, the only people mostly recognized as doctors are medical practitioners. As a matter of fact, some laymen do not know there are other kind of doctors. Recently, I heard of a story in which a man is called doctor in his area. One day, a child suddenly fell sick early in the morning, but rather than rush the child to t...

Foundation for Peace Professionals (FPP) is part of a global campaign to get the word ‘’peacebuilding’’ into dictionaries on or before 21st September 2018. We have teamed up with other organizations around the world to advocate for the inclusion of peacebuilding into dictionaries to celebrate this year’s International Day of Peace. In many history books and academic materials, war mongers are usually painted as legends and their stories often told over and over again with so much glitz and fanfare. Stories of great Empire’s all over the world are usually stories of war and war mongers, not that of peace and peacebuilders. Peaceful leaders in time past are relegated and accorded very little or no space in our history books and if not, where are the stories of leaders who opposed to war in time past? Where are the stories of peace builders of our world? It starts with small omissions like not having the word, ‘’peacebuilding’’ in the dictionary, whereas, ‘’warmongering’’ is ...

My first encounter with Kofi Annan happened in my peace course material, then our path crossed in real life. Anyone who has a degree in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution will most likely come across the name of Kofi Annan and Boutrus Ghali almost on daily basis. Apart from Mahatma Ghandi of India, the famous nonviolent resistance activist, Boutrus Ghali and Kofi Annan are arguably the two most important figures in the development of peace practice, particularly at the United Nations. Whenever you hear the phrase, ''agenda for peace'', expect the mention of Boutrus Ghali, but when you hear ''peace building'', expect to hear Kofi Annan. Both men are from Africa and they are both former Secretary General of United Nations who played leading role in the development of those concepts. After coming across Kofi Annan all through my first degree classes in our course materials, i later came close to meeting the icon during my MSc. Immediately a...

‘’the peaceful action of a sincere peacemaker can melt the strongest heart of a brutal murderer’’ Abiy Ahmed One man has capacity to inspire peace against all anti-peace forces, no matter how long and bitter the war has been fought. This is what we have learned from Abiy Ahmed (41), the new Prime Minister of Ethiopia in his quest to end his country’s 20 years war with neighboring Eritrea. Eritrea seceded from Ethiopia in 1993 after many years of struggle and internal rift which started in 1974. Five years later, both countries fought over disputed territory along their border. In that unfortunate battle, which signifies the beginning of a long term conflict between the two countries, more than 80,000 people were reportedly killed. Several attempts by the international community to resolve the dispute didn’t yield any result, including a UN backed boundary commission in 2002, which resolved that Ethiopia should cede the town of Badme to Eritrea. Ethiopia refused to honor the ...

By Abdulrazaq O Hamzat Abiy Ahmed, Ethopia prime Minister Ethopia’s new Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed (42), who took office in April as Africa’s youngest ruler is currently leading the world with love. He often preach, “Love wins” even when he was attacked with grenade by hostile enemies and narrowly escape death. In June 2018 for example, csmonitor reported that, ‘’after he gave a speech to a large and adoring crowd in the capital, Addis Ababa, someone threw a grenade toward him, killing two people and injuring more than a hundred. However, rather than respond with condemnation of attack as his usually done by most leaders across the world, Abiy simply responded with a love message that says, “Love always wins. Forgiveness will win. Killing others is a defeat.” But this is not the first act of love and forgiveness Abiy has done since coming to office. He has been demonstrating a rare kind of love, similar to the kind of love Kanye West preaches during his recent rant on Twitte...

UPDATE ON PLATEAU CRISIS SITUATION 1. Following the recent tragic incident in Plateau State, which took place in 11 villages in three local government areas and claimed several lives, Foundation for Peace Professionals (FPP) which has been working behind the scene to prevent the outbreak of crisis several weeks before the tragic incident took place would like to urge the Plateau state government to set up an anti-crime force to combat organized criminality in state. This is very important because the major cause of crisis in the state is criminality, not ethnicity or religion as being insinuated by many. 2. In the past two months, FPP through its coordinator, have been working on building peace and preventing crisis in Plateau State. Following a report, received through our early warning system that over 300 cattle were rustled by cattle rustlers along Jos South, Barkin Ladi axis, FPP initiated a mediation effort to build understanding particularly between farmers and herdsmen and ...

By Abdulrazaq O Hamzat Self determined Nnamdi Azikwe on campaign in 1959 Nigeria Police Force is generally regarded as one of the most corrupt institutions in Nigeria, but how corrupt really is the Nigerian Police and to what extent do they perpetrate their acts of corruption? This is what I tried to find out in my recent trip to Ilorin from Abuja. On 8th May 2018, I embarked on a road trip from Abuja to Ilorin. This is not an ordinary trip like others; it is more like going on a fact finding mission. Before embarking on the trip, I had gone through the route many times and i understand that commercial drivers often part with their hard earned money at every police check points. However, my mission on this trip was to find out, if it is possible for a commercial driver to drive pass these police check points without paying a bribe. On the day of my journey, I woke up early, so as to get to park early and have brief engagement with the drivers. When I got there, i requested t...

Following the improved counter terrorism activities of the Nigeria Army against the dreaded Boko Haram insurgency group in North East, Foundation for Peace Professionals (FPP) in its usual practice visited Borno State, the foundation place for Boko Haram. FPP team in North East, headed by the North East Director, Mr. Alkasim Aliyu embarked on a 5 days situation visit to Maiduguri, Borno State capital from 11th -15th of May, 2018 to assess the living condition of the people, as well as the economic situation. In our visit, it was discovered that Borno state is experiencing the best of time now since 2011, as economic situation, educational progression and other developmental activities are getting better by the day. This is contrary to most media reports which seem to be exaggerating the security situation, particularly in Maiduguri, the state capital. This improvement we observed, in addition to military activities, can be credited to several factors, such as improved activi...

By Abdulrazaq O Hamzat An increasing amount of attention to peace indexes has provided insights into the levels of peace and conflict around the world. The indicators used in Vision of Humanity’s renowned Global Peace Index (GPI) report have now been adopted in a Nigeria Peace Index, created by the Foundation for Peace Professionals (FFP), with slight adjustments made to suit local use. This is a useful tool for peace builders in Nigeria, especially for authorities in search appropriate policy direction for peace building. Measuring peace at the national level allows a country to assess the social, political and economic factors that create peace. More importantly, the NPI will allow peace builders in Nigeria to change the narrative, by concentrating the advocacy on foundational indices of peace, not on crisis or conflict management. This is important because, by focusing the discussion on fundamental indices of peace, we are channeling efforts towards advocating for improvement ...

Some years ago, when Boko Haram insurgency was at its peak in North East Nigeria, sacking villages, detonating bombs in markets, mosques and churches, killing children, women and elderly and forcefully conscripting innocent youths into its fold, many of our fellow citizens in the other parts of the country are feeling so unconcerned. The reason for their lack of concern is very clear; they thought the violence is a northern affair that would never get to their part of the country. To add salt to the injury, some unkind people, out of sheer carelessness went on social media to mock victims of the insurgency without feeling any sense of shame. In the most inhuman and demeaning manner, the whole world heard them saying; ‘’let the north continue to kill themselves’’. Nothing could be more shocking and heart breaking. These people made it clear to all that they do not care about the innocent lives being lost in North East. It doesn’t matter if more than 20,000 people are gruesomely ki...

Mention five states in Nigeria that are considered not peaceful based on public perception? That was the question that shaped the private conversation I had with two veteran media personalities and crisis communication experts this past week. It was an unplanned discussion about the role of media in communicating events and shaping perceptions. As we are all aware, media communication in our culture is said to hold an influential place in disseminating information, forming attitudes and motivating behavior. However, according to the conclusion in a Conference of Catholic Churches (CCC, no. 2489), ‘’the more our culture moved away from acceptance of objective truth, the more it has moved toward the culture of opinions’’, which in my view is largely shaped by media reports and perception. On Friday, April 6, 2018, Foundation for Peace Professionals (FPP) publicly unveiled the maiden edition of Nigeria Peace Index (NPI) report in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital. Nigeria Peace Index...

Foundation for Peace Professionals (FPP) wishes to inform the public that the Nigeria Peace Index (NPI) research project has been rescheduled to launch on Friday, 6th April, 2018 at Symposium II, Merit House, Maitama Abuja. Nigeria Peace Index (NPI) is the first national peace index in Nigeria that is focused on measuring peace tendencies through foundational indices. Nigeria Peace Index results shows the most and least peaceful states in Nigeria, most and least peaceful regions in Nigeria, most peaceful states in each of the 6 geo-political zones of Nigeria, least peaceful states in each of the 6 geo-political zones in Nigeria among other interesting revelations. The index also provides analysis of socio-economic factors associated with peacefulness in states across Nigeria, as well as an estimate of the economic benefits that would flow from increase in peace. Nigeria Peace Index (NPI), which rates the level of peacefulness in the 36 states of the federation, is the produc...

The heart is said to be called Qalb in Arabic language because it changes so quickly and frequently. Qalb (heart) is derived from the word Taqallub, which means alteration, variation, ups and downs. By this, it can be understood that heart desires are not always static. Actually, it can never be static. The heart can love today and hate tomorrow. It can be happy now and sad the next moment. It may be optimistic some days and dejected in others. That is the nature of the heart. It keeps varying. However, the heart is not foolish; it doesn’t just alternate or go up and down for no reason. Something has to trigger it to act the way it does. It could be something seen, heard, felt or thought. The heart doesn’t just love; something must propel it to love. It also doesn’t just hate, something has to instigate it to hate. To keep a lovely relationship lovely, you must keep supplying the heart with the lovely content that makes it feel lovely. Anything to the contrary will equally pro...

Foundation for Peace Professionals (FPP) have been working on a Nigeria Peace Index (NPI) since 2016. The organization's Executive Director, AMB. Abdulrazaq O Hamzat was quoted last December by Blue Print newspaper to have said that the research has been concluded and that they are only doing some internal work in preparation for the launching of the index. Today on social media, facebook to be specific, Abdulrazaq posted a rough art work of the index with a caption'' Understanding the rate of peacefulness in Nigeria''. Source: https://www.facebook.com/abdulrazaq.o.hamzat

Don’t rush to judge By Abdulrazaq O Hamzat Home is a place you are welcome, a place you are comfortable, a place that evoke memories of history and ownership. It is a place you are free to be good or bad and still maintain your human dignity. Home is a place you are allowed to be fallible and be human. In a place you can call home, that’s a place you should be able to enjoy the comfort of self expression and vast exploration without restriction. It is a place that offers you all the opportunity it can afford, so that you can realize your dreams and life aspirations without jeopardizing your decency, culture and sanity. Any place or location that offers you the above is worthy to be called home, no matter where it is, because indeed, it is home. However, this kind of perfect home description is almost non existent in our world today. No place in the world today come close actually, but it is not achievable, should we decide to pursue it. We all deserve to be at home. Many p...