Mancham heads for Nigeria to take part in ‘essential inter-faith’ programmes |30 October 2013

Former President James Mancham leaves Seychelles on Sunday November 3 for Abuja, Nigeria to take part in the upcoming Global Peace Leadership Conference and Festival which will be held from November 7 - 9.
 
This major peace festival and leadership conference is organised by the Washington DC-based Global Peace Foundation (GPF) headed by its chairman Dr Hyun Jin Moon in association with the vice-president of the Office of Strategic Partnership, David Caprara.

It will bring together leading voice from around the world, including current and former heads of state, parliamentarians, faith leaders, scholars, prominent business figures and youth and service leaders to advance opportunities for peace and youth development under the vision of One Family Under God.   

Mr Mancham has accepted to speak at the opening plenary on the theme of ‘Moral and Innovative Leadership … building sustainable peace for a prosperous future’.
 
Among others who will be taking part in the programmes are Catholic Archbishop of Abuja John Cardinal Onaikan; former President Obasanjo of Nigeria; former President of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan; former President of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda; Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, chairperson of the African Union Commission; His Eminence Mohammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, Sultan of Sokoto, President General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs; former President of Kenya Mwai Kibaki; former President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki; former President of Ghana General Jerry Rawlings.

A signature initiative of the GPF, global peace festivals since 2007 have drawn more than a million peace citizens from different cultures and backgrounds on six continents, advancing principles of service to others, inter-faith collaboration and support for strengthening family values as a building block of a peaceful society.
 
Following the global peace conventions in Nairobi and Seoul, Korea in 2011 and the Global Peace Leadership Conference and Festival in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia last December, GPF convened the 2012 Global Peace Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA in partnership with both Jimmy Carter Presidential Centre and Martin Luther King Centre.  
 
In a statement issued yesterday morning Mr Mancham said that the Nigerian get-together will discuss about the flare ups of sectarians induced violence by extreme elements in Northern, Western and Eastern Africa.   

He said that the GPF is launching essential inter-faith programmes of peace building and cooperation which can be a model for Africa and the world and in this connection would be engaging its extensive network of global faith partners in Nigeria who share a common commitment to universal principles and values.