INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE 2020: RESPONDENT APPEAL FOR COMPASSION AMONG CITIZENS
Reporter : CHIOMA EZEMA
Annually, the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on 21st of September. celebration marks the 75th anniversary of the peace Day. To commemorate 2020 edition of the celebration, the United Nations has its theme as “Shaping Peace Together – a call to spread peace through compassion, kindness and hope in the face of COVID 19 pandemic.”
Radio Nigeria went round Nsukka metropolis to ascertain possible ways to spread peace through compassion, kindness and hope. Peace is a stress-free state of security and calmness that comes when there is no fighting or war, everything coexisting in perfect harmony and freedom. Peace is also a state of tranquility, law and order, quietness and devoid of disturbance and violence.
As individuals, everyone needs peace of mind and serene environment either in the home, places of work, at the market or even in the churches. Some public commentators are of the view that peace is mostly needed in this critical time of dreaded COVID-19 pandemic that is ravaging the world.
Perhaps it was on this note that the United Nations Secretary General, Anthonio Guterres, in March 2020 called on all warring parties to lay down their weapons and focus on the battle against this unprecedented global pandemic. International Day of Peace was established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly.
Two decades later, the General Assembly voted to designate the day as a period of non-violence and cease fire. This year, 2020, it has been clearer than ever that people are not each other’s enemies, rather, the common enemy is a tireless virus that threatens the health, security and way of life.
COVID-19 has thrown the world into turmoil and forcibly reminded the people that what happens in one part of the planet can impact people everywhere.
Even though the world may not be able to stand together, the United Nations is of the opinion that people can still dream together through dialogue, the collective ideas and thought on how to weather this storm, heal the planet and change it for the better.
According to a mother and the Financial Secretary, Parish Council St. Michael’s parish Agbamere Eha-alumona, Mrs. Anthonia Ezea, visiting the sick and helping those in need are among ways people can spread peace through compassion.
For his part, the Vice Principal in charge of Discipline at Community Secondary School, Isienu Nsukka, Mr. Nicolas Ugwu, ways of spreading peace through kindness are when people show charity, be their brother’s and sister’s keepers, sharing the little they have with their neighbours in this period of COVID-19.
Speaking on the ways of spreading peace through hope, the Director Justice and Peace Commission Catholic Diocese of Nsukka, the Rev. Fr. Simeon Ugwueze, said people must be just in their relationship with one another, stressing that there could never be peace without justice. The Reverend Fr. Ugwueze also used the opportunity to pray for justice in governance, homes, families as well as those parts of the world that were in violence, especially Nigerians in such situations.