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NIGERIA, MARCHING FORWARD TO GREATNESS
WITH PEACE, LOVE AND JUSTICE
Being the Speech Sent to the African Children of Peace Club (Nigeria
Chapter)
End of Year Celebrations and Street Peace Rally, on December 12, 2006
By Reverend Titus K. Oyeyemi, President and CEO African Foundation for
Peace and Love Initiatives

    The African Children of Peace Club (Nigeria Chapter), the Chief
Chaperon, Mr. Okey Anyanwu, all Chaperons, Principals and Head Teachers,
our indefatigable National Secretary, Mrs. Eniola Ogundipe (alias Auntie
Peace), and everyone here present today. The able Governor of Lagos State,
Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu. All protocols observed.

    The theme of our gathering here today is “Nigeria, marching forward to
greatness with peace, love and justice.” Depending on the time when this
message of love, peace and justice is read the African Children of Peace
might be starting to march or might have marched on the streets of Agege,
Dopemu, and environs, to symbolize their determination to march Nigeria
forward to victory and greatness.

Calling and Thanking the School Teachers

The group of people I would like to thank immensely today are our school
teachers who have volunteered to serve as Chaperons of our various peace
clubs in their schools at all levels.

As you are already aware, African Foundation for Peace and Love Initiatives
is promoting its Youth Peace and Nation Building Programs through three
grassroots peace and love clubs. These clubs are the African Children of
Peace Clubs, targeted at children in nursery, kindergarten and primary
schools with its motto of “Catch them Young for Peace.” The Youth Peace
Alliance Clubs, founded in junior and senior secondary schools, and the
KAIROS Peace and Love Clubs founded in institutions of higher learning,
tertiary and vocational institutions such as universities, polytechnics,
colleges of education, etc

Our Concept of the Long Tomorrow

    By being in the life of every Nigerian child for nineteen years (9 years in
elementary, 6 years in secondary, and 4 years in tertiary) we hope to
cultivate a new lifestyle of Peacebuilding in our children. This is a new
partnership that calls for the collective efforts of students, teachers, parents,
the general members of the public and all the sectors of the communities
and governments.

Training the New Constituency of Peacebuilders

    To survive and grow our Youth Peace and Nation Building peace clubs
require the support and direct involvement of schools teachers, head
teachers and principals, faculty members and administrators, school district
officials, and policy makers. AFPLI has therefore embarked upon an
ambitious training program to train assigned teachers our basic conflict
transformation and Peacebuilding curriculum. We have successfully started
this program at Education Districts II and VI in Lagos State, where we have
symbolically launched more than 200 Youth Peace Alliance Clubs. The
secondary schools teachers assigned to the Y-PAC are appointed as
chaperons to our peace clubs in their schools.

Africans Need New Teacher-Leaders

In the opinion of developed nations, Africa has missed the opportunity to
develop because she lacked good leaders. In my own opinion, it is not the
lack of leaders, but the lack of teacher-leaders that is plaguing the continent
of Africa. When leaders are good teachers, nations will march forward. But
when leaders are bad teachers, nations are doomed. Nigeria is doomed
because most leaders are showing bad examples to our children and our
youths.

It is not only the children and the youth that need teachers. All the nations of
Africa need new teacher-leaders. Africans need teacher-leader like Booker T.
Washington (1856-1915) who taught the Adaptive Life to the African
Americans; teacher-leader like W. E.B. Du Bios (1868-1963), who taught the
Strenuous Life to the African-Americans; leader-teacher like Malcom X
(1925-1965), who taught the Defiant Life to the African-Americans, and last
but not the least, teacher-leader like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968),
who taught the Integrative Life to the African-Americans.

For Nigeria to march forward to progress, development, victory and greatness,
we need new teacher-leaders who will teach us Ethnoreligious Harmony and
Proactive Grassroots Peacebuilding. We need teachers-leaders who will
teach our youths how to shun corruption in their communities. We need
teacher-leaders who will teach our children and youths how to employ the
education they have received to transform their communities for the better
and not for the worse.

Every Learner-Driver Needs a Teacher-Driver        .

The scripture says “Your children will be taught by the Lord and great shall
be your children’s peace.” A Hausa proverb says “It takes a village to raise a
child.” Mahatma Gandhi said “If we are to reach real peace in the world, we
shall have to begin with the children.” That is exactly what we are doing at
AFPLI. We are training our children to become peacemakers so that they
could truly be “African Children of Peace.”

Demanding a Peaceful Tomorrow

On behalf of African Children of Peace Clubs here present and in other
places, I call upon the leaders of today to bequeath these leaders of
tomorrow, the African Future Land of Peace, which they deserve.

Thank you.

Reverend Titus K. Oyeyemi (CCH, IL 12/12/2006).
Some Peace Marching Songs

We Are Marching Forward,
Marching On To Greatness,
We Are Marching Forward,
Marching On To Victory
With Peace and Love
We Are Marching Forward!

March On Forward and Become Victorious
March On Forward and Become Victorious
When We Advance, the Sea Will Part Ways
When We Advance, the Sea Will Part Ways

E-wo-ke, A-yo M-bo-wa
Olorun A-yo
Ti Ma-yo Wa!

We Love Africa, We Seek Her Future Peace
Tribes and Tongues May Differ, But we are the same
With Peace and Love, Africa will be great
We Love Africa, the Future Land of Peace.

This is the time for us to come together
It is the dawning of a new era, Let us work together
To build our Nation
The Way to Make Peace is to Serve Your Neighbor’s needs
Give Peace some Chance
Because we are here to make peace
You lift my hands, I lift yours
In no time with your help, In no time with my help
We gonna be riding higher, riding higher and higher
Where the eagles fly
Because we are here to make peace

Let us put violence to shame
Let us put violence to shame
There must be peace in Nigeria
There must be peace in Africa
There must be peace all over the world
Let us put violence to shame.

(Reverend Titus K. Oyeyemi, President/CEO and Peaceworker
African Projects (Foundation) for Peace and Love Initiatives.
TimeOn KAIROS Peace Academy