Unilorin don identifies five pathways to global peace
Adedimeji made this disclosure in a lead paper entitled, “The Triangulation of Peace, Security and Development”, which he presented at the just concluded 3rd U6 International Conference held at the University of Ilorin from September 6-10, 2015.
According to him, peace can be conceived from psychological , sociological, spiritual, political or even philosophical standpoints. From whichever perspectives, peace is harmony. It is orderliness and absence of domination or poverty. He traced philosophical works of Aristotle, Plato, St Augustine and others and concluded that peace is not only the absence of war but a state of mind. “It is both internal and external”, he emphasised.
The prolific writer and columnist stressed further that, “Peace is both positive (freedom from want) or negative (freedom from fear). It is both absolute and relative”. Explaining further, he said, “Absolutely absolute peace is utopian, relatively absolute peace is achievable and relatively relative peace is controllable”, adding that absolutely relative peace is inflammable. Citing different sections of the holy books particularly the Bible, the Qu’ran, the Tahmud (Judaism) and the Udana-Varga (Buddhism), he listed rules to happier life as; love Allah, harm no one, forgive always, do good and be positive.
The core of conflicts, he noted, are human greed and counseled against unbridled acquisition of wealth far beyond needs. “When we die, our money remain in the banks…yet when we are alive , we don't have enough to spend”, he observed, adding that in reality after we had died, there will still be money left unspent.
To further drive home his point, Dr. Adedimeji reported a story of a rich Chinese business tycoon who died leaving for his widow about $2billion dollars. Shortly after his demise, the widow married her husband's driver who pleasantly exclaimed when his new status dawned on him that, “All the while I thought I was working for my boss…It is only now that I realized that my boss had all the while been working for me”.
The Lecturer then stressed the importance of long healthy life or health security rather than mad rush for wealth, stressing it doesn't matter who is working for who.
While tracing the nexus between Peace, Security and Development in a figure presented during the presentation, Dr. Adedimeji said that adherence to the rule of law guarantees peace and security in a given society while harmonious co-existence among communities often lead to development. For development to be sustainable and security to be continuous, he continued, there should be accountability, transparency and good governance. He traced goals and types of development citing the Singapore an experience in industry, housing, education, finance, and even foreign policy as a model worthy of closer scrutiny.
Every development drive, Dr. Adedimeji further submitted, should raise peoples' quality of life, that is better income distribution and equitable access to life essentials like food, medicine and education. He added that development should engender the promotion of peoples' self- esteem through establishment of social, political, and economic systems and institutions promote human dignity and lastly increase peoples' liberty to choose from different goods and services available.
While referring to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) development report (1994), which listed forms of security to include economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security, political security, Dr. Adedimeji said from his own studies in 2015, three other security types namely religious security, psychological (emotional) security and social security need to be included and addressed.
SOURCE:UNILORIN
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