Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, Founder, Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development (SCDDD), has called on the civil society and private sector to join in promoting peace keeping in Africa.
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Gambari told our correspondent on Wednesday in Abuja that peace keeping was far too important to be left in the hands of government alone.
He said that civil society groups needed to get involved in order to monitor commitment of all African countries.
“This will encourage countries to take all the necessary efforts including reform of governance, institutions and all that will help to sustain the peace.
“The role of the private sector is also very important because I recalled once the South Africans, towards the end of apartheid, said we used to think business is business, but we realised that the true business of business is to stay in business,” he said.
Gambari said that the peoples of this continent must be concerned about how to prevent conflict, prevent wars and silence the guns.
“Primacy of conflict prevention – early warning, early action and early listening – can’t be over emphasised.
“The Narrative of Africa is that it is a continent in perpetual conflict and crisis and that undermines the tremendous progress the continent is making in the economy,” he said.
According to him, some of the fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa, but all of that goes to the background.
“This is so because all we portray to the public is terrorism, conflict and lack of peace keeping , among others, and this mindset has to change,” he said.
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