The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) has urged graduates of its National Peace Academy (NPA) to become ambassadors of peace by using the knowledge they acquired to promote peace wherever they find themselves.
IPCR Director-General, Dr Bakut Bakut, gave the charge in Abuja on Friday at the graduation ceremony of participants of the institute’s “Strategic Negotiation and Mediation” course.
Bakut, who was represented by Dr Joseph Ochogwu, the institute’s Director of Research and Policy Analysis, explained that the course participants were trained on mediation and negotiation which were essential ingredients for conflict resolution.
He said that in conflict resolution, “it is very important that the negotiator is armed with the skills of negotiation and mediation to be able to bring the disputing parties to the table.”
The director-general expressed confidence that “with the skills that the graduates have acquired, they would become ambassadors of peace in their places of work, homes, communities and nationally.”
The Director of the IPCR Peace Academy, Dr Mrs Bosede Awodola, in her closing remarks, commended the graduates for their diligence and ability to endure the tasking nature of the program right from its commencement up to graduation.
Awodola expressed confidence that with the knowledge they had acquired, they would remain, ambassadors of the institute, wherever they would find themselves.
She, therefore, urged them to keep collaborating with the institute and keep in touch at all times.
One of the graduates, Brig-Gen Frank Etim of the National War College, Abuja, said that he benefited a lot from the course.
Etim stressed that all prospective leaders needed to garner additional knowledge to succeed in whatever they would want to do and lead successfully.
He promised to henceforth bring the knowledge he acquired at the Peace Academy to bear on his career and everywhere that he would find himself.
“If you want to be a leader, you must be a reader,” Etim stressed.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 18 people drawn from different organisations, which included security agencies, civil society organisations, among others, graduated from the academy, while numerous resource persons also participated.
 has urged graduates of its National Peace Academy (NPA) to become ambassadors of peace by using the knowledge they acquired to promote peace wherever they find themselves.){kind=link}