- I—A conflict averted
- II—Origins of the meeting at Bukuru
- III—Keynote address part 1: Jesus and Mohammed; Forgiveness
- IV—Keynote address part 2: Peace, the gold prize
- V—Other speakers; conclusion; afterward
Peace
As I suggested earlier, forgiveness leads to peace. And peace is what we desperately need. We must have peace on the plateau. I want to have peace and I am sure that you also want to have peace. Peace has so many benefits.
- Peace will give you a chance for education.
- Peace will give you a chance to get a job.
- Peace will give you a chance to make more friends.
- Peace will give you a chance for a life—to get married and have a family.
- Peace will give you a chance to do everything you have always wanted to do in life.
However, fighting and killing and burning will take away everything you have wanted to do.
- It will rob you of an education and a job and a family and friends.
- It will rob you of sleep at night and a comfortable life
- It may even rob your of your life.
Your Turn
For reasons I do not fully understand, God Almighty has chosen your generation to deal with this huge problem. In your grandfather’s generation, there was peace on the plateau. No one cared whether a person was a Christian or a Muslim, a Hausa or Berom or Afirzere or Naraguta or Yoruba or Igbo or an Oyebo (white man). That was when Plateau State was known as the home of peace and tourism. However, something has disturbed our peace.
Your parents’ generation spoiled things. Either because of their greed or their ignorance or something else, they lost the peace this city once enjoyed. And do you know what else they have done? Many of them are using you to fight their battles for them. You know better than I that often the manya manya [big] people get the little people like you to fight their battles for them. And you are the ones who suffer.
It is time for the youth to say “It is enough. We are no longer going to fight the battles for the older generation.” In fact, I am convinced that God Almighty allowed these problems to develop on the plateau at this time because God Almighty knew that you would be the best generation to know how to solve them. To be honest, I do not know the best way to solve these problems. However, I believe that God Almighty is going to give you the answers on how to solve these problems of violence and loss of peace. The question is, will you rise to the challenge and reject the violence that is trying to destroy you; will you work hard for peace?
I challenge you to leave a legacy to your children and grandchildren that it was this generation that solved the violence problems on the plateau.
The Voices
Before I conclude, I want to tell you about some voice that I am hearing now. Do you hear those voices? I hear voices. Whose are those voices?
They are voices of children. In fact, they are the voices of your children—your future children—speaking to me and to you. Do you know what they are saying? They are saying, “Tell our future parents not to participate in violence.”
Did you hear that? They said, “Tell our future parents not to participate in violence because if they participate in violence, they may be killed. And if they are killed, they will never be able to get married and if they do not get married, they will never be able to give birth to us.” Therefore, on behalf of your future children, I am pleading with you not to engage in violence.
I know that some of you have probably said in the past, “Well, I don’t care what happens to me, whether I live or die. I am just going to deal with those people.” That is a nice pious-sounding statement which even sounds selfless on the surface. However, remember that if you die while participating in some violent action, all of the children that you would have given birth to and all of the children that they would have given birth to and all the subsequent generations will never be born. Do not deny your future children a chance to live by your angry and violent retaliations today.
Conclusion
I am calling on each of you individually to establish peace with your neighbor and with those you have been battling with. Establish peace well, that you can marry some day and give birth to those children. Establish the kind of peace that will last so that one day you can sit under the mango tree with your friends, with whom you used to fight, and tell your grandchildren and his grandchildren that there was a time that you fought each other but that you learned that peace is better than war. You learned that love is stronger than hate. You learned that forgiveness is better than retaliation. You learned that rejecting violence and embracing peace was what gave you a life that you lived until old age.
Reaction to My Address
Although everyone had spoken only in English up to that point, when I started speaking, Ahmed, the previous speaker, came up beside me and started translating into Hausa. He was very good. As I was speaking, I thought, “I think this is the first time I have ever preached a sermon with a Muslim interpreter.”
I was pleased with the presentation. By the time I started speaking, the hall appeared to be packed. I would guess that there were somewhere between 800 and 1200 there at that time.
I am not sure if it was something that I said or not, but at one point, about 50 or 60 people got up and walked out. It was about the time that I was talking about forgiveness and doing good to those on the other side so I suspect the walk-out was a statement by some of those who were still feeling angry. My speaking was a very clear call to lay down the sword and focus on peace so if there were those who were not ready to do that, my message would not have been what they wanted to hear. However, as a general rule, I think the presentation was well received.
There were about four elderly Muslim men sitting on the front row. I was afraid they would not understand my English. However, I could see them nodding even before the Hausa translation was done. They were vigorously nodding and smiling when I was telling the story of Mohammed.
Next: V—Other speakers; conclusion; afterward
No comments:
Post a Comment