IN its quest to ensure that lasting peace reigns in the country, the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) has unveiled a peace project ‘seeking symbols of love and forgiveness from conflict actors to peace builders’, to seek icon of love and forgiveness from the six geo-political zones.    Through the project, KIND is to promote democracy by strengthening civil society in Africa. It aims that all Nigerians, irrespective of their religious, social and political affiliation, must imbibe the spirit of love, peace and oneness.

In a statement signed by its Project Administrator, Steve Aborisade, the organisation, headed by Hafsat Abiola-Costello as the Board President, in collaboration with the Festzer Institute, is to identify and highlight the works of unspoken heroes of peace who have relied on the transformative power of love and forgiveness from different communities across zones.

He added that KIND sees the project as a platform for exchange of ideas and opportunities. “We ask, beyond amnesty, can love and forgiveness heal our wounds? Can it place us on a new landscape of mutual co-existence based on respect and sensitivity to each other’s diversity?”

In the statement, Aborisade asked: “Can a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-lingual Nigeria live together in peace? Can we talk about national unity amidst incessant conflicts and within the tense and gloomy political atmosphere?  What of the bitterness and gross animosity existing between some Muslims and Christians, the two main religions, and among the ethnic groups in some parts of our country?  What of the crisis that has expanded to the more traditional institutions like the family, with the spate of violence being recorded on the home front? So also are the violent crimes of kidnapping, assassinations, rape and corruption that are now a daily occurrence in our land.

“We therefore encourage individuals and groups to nominate worthy individual(s) on this website-http://www.nijaexemplarsoflove-forgiveness.org/?page=welcome- created for that purpose.