By: Kebba Ansu Manneh
Youth Movement for Employment and Violence-free Africa (YoMEVA) has over the weekend embark on a peace convergence at Sifoe village, Kombo South in a bid to preaching peaceful co-existence among Gambians and beyond.
According to officials, the association was registered in 2016 at a time The Gambia was witnessing its political impasse as a means to reacting out to nationals to maintained peace and unity in the country.
“Since our inception in 2016, the association is doing everything possible to reach out to communities, institutions and schools with the message of peace knowing that without peace there cannot be any meaningful development in the country and the need to preach peace becomes incumbent upon us as an association.
So far we have reach out twenty (20) schools in the country to discuss about challenges and benefits of peace as well as a violence-free Africa and this is the reason we are here in Sifoe today”, said Alagie Mboob, acting President of YoMEVA.
The acting President continues to disclose that promoting peaceful and violence-free society is everybody’s business, noting that the association will not relent in its efforts to reaching out to the communities in a bid to ensuring that peaceful co-existence is ensured for all peoples living in the country and beyond.
“Many a times its as a result of the greed of man for worldly resources that fans the flames of violence,. Sometime because of power struggle, selfishness, tribalism and nepotism also contribute to violence in the society.
Without peace there cannot be any development and without development there cannot be any progress and hence it’s everybody’s duty to promote peace in our neighborhoods, societies, countries and regions”, said Yusupha Manneh, who spoke on the theme ‘peace as a tool for socio-economic development.
Manneh observed that many countries including Syria, Yemen, South Sudan, and Yemen are not enjoying peace because of war, adding that it will be irrational to think of embarking on development initiatives in these countries as a result of the absence of peace.
He said during violence time everyone thinks of him/herself, stressing the need for all hands to be on deck in the promotion of peace and violence free society.
“To ensure peace ad violence-free Africa we must institute truth first, we must forgive each other and we must forbid all forms of tribalism, nepotism and racism among ourselves then and only then we can enjoy peace in the society”, Manneh told the people of Sifoe as a means to bringing peace in our society.
Yankuba Manneh also a member of the association said the lack of dialogue and understanding among people living side by side in the communities are factors that simmers violence and destroy peaceful co-existence in societies, arguing that dialogue among ourselves is the surest way to bringing peace and understanding in our societies and the country as a whole.
“Every human being is at conflict with self and if this conflict is not handled well it can split to the society, community and the country as well. For me I think we can use the dialogue tool to solve our problems and bring peace in the communities”, Yankuba added his voice to the debate at Sifoe.
Kekuta Cham who delves into the unemployment canker-worm grappling the teeming youthful population in the country, adducing that lack of employment also fuels violence in societies.
He calls on the government to reflect on the plight of the youth employment, while calling on the youths to distance themselves from illegal activities and engage in skills acquisition.