Religious leaders have been urged to preach peace to their followers at all the times to build a better society for a meaningful development.
The project manager I- RENEW,Mr Williams Ubimago stated this during a three day training workshop organised by search for common ground Nigeria for religious leaders in Kaduna.
The workshop which draws participants from Plateau and Kaduna state is aimed at fostering peace among religious leaders within the two states.
Mr Williams said the project was introduce to help mitigate the escalation of religious violence, and also promote inter religion peaceful co-existence in the diverse religious groups to live in harmony with each other.
He explained that over time the social media space has been used as an avenue to promote religious intolerance hence the need to bring religious leaders together to find ways to counter the wrong narrative.
The project manager added that the workshop will equally be an avenue where participants will be thought on how to use the social media to promote peaceful co-existence.
Also the media and extra peace building search for common ground,Mr Temisan Etietsosa said the workshop is organised to increase awareness to practitioners and interfaith leaders on the online interaction on the roles and guidelines to interaction that will not escalate into conflicts.
In a paper presentation by Mr Temisan Etietsola on the difference between conflict and violence, and to understand the causes of conflict, the paper presentation highlighted the enablement of parties in conflict to dialogue gradually
Some participants at the on-going workshop from the Muslims and Christians angles said the training workshop is timely where they call for respect for each other religion and added that they will step down the training to their follower to promote peaceful co-coexistence in the two states.
The presentation saw participants through the importance of exploring the opportunities and challenges of digital platforms for faith-based peace building, and the role of faith leaders in fostering positive online engagement.
The various presentations from the various groups said the role of religious leaders to come together to preach peace to their followers cannot be overemphasized.
GNN24 News 