Enugu, Nigeria—UPF will send College Ambassadors for Peace throughout Nigeria to establish peace clubs in colleges of education.
In response to the 2015 UN International Day of Peace theme, “Partnerships for Peace – Dignity for All,” UPF is partnering with the National Association of Women in Colleges of Education (WICE) to launch a Special Ambassadors for Peace to Colleges of Education Initiative.
Working in partnership, UPF and WICE will designate senior women educators and administrators in colleges of education as College Ambassadors for Peace and work with them to establish peace clubs, introduce peace education and create college peace councils to support governing boards of colleges of education.
The launch ceremony, which took place on October 14, 2015, at Enugu State College of Education (Technical), was a step toward winning the approval of the National Commission for Colleges of Education for the establishment of peace clubs and introduction of peace education in Nigerian colleges of education, as proposed in 2014 by UPF-Nigeria.
During WICE’s national conference, held on October 13 to 15, 2015, at the Enugu State College of Education, UPF-Nigeria commissioned representatives as Ambassadors for Peace to 14 colleges of education and a special representative to the National Commission for Colleges of Education headquarters as well as the provost of the Enugu State College of Education. In addition, the proprietors of a private school in Enugu, Mr. and Mrs. Mike Nwakaibe Adah, were inducted for taking the lead in establishing a peace club in their school.
The representatives were charged to serve as UPF Ambassadors for Peace who embody the ideal of peace as advocated by the UPF founders and will seek to transform the college communities to peaceful communities. As the colleges of education are teacher training colleges, the Ambassadors for Peace shall work to raise a new generation of educators for peace.
The ceremony witnessed the commissioning of educators who will serve as coordinators of the initiative in all the colleges of education in Nigeria. The national officers commissioned at the event are:
- Mrs. Mary Oyere Aibangbe - Federal College of Education, Kano (national president)
- Mrs. Mary Mamman Sawa - Federal College of Education, Yola (vice president)
- Mrs. Auta Hauwa Goro - Federal College of Education (Technical), Potiskum (secretary)
- Dr. Mrs. Theresa Okoli - Federal College of Education (Technical), Umunze (assistant secretary)
- Mrs. Rebecca Tser - College of Education, Katsina Ala (treasurer)
- Mrs. Oluchi Emeka Odoemene - FCT College of Education, Zuba (public relations officer)
- Mrs. Adanma Onyeukwu - Federal College of Education (Technical), Omoku (financial secretary)
- Mrs. Bridget Agada - College of Education, Oju (editor)
- Mrs. Theresa Ajaidu - FCT College of Education, Zuba (auditor)
- Mrs. Lami Dutse - National Commission for Colleges of Education representative
- Dr. Mrs. Yetunde O. Giwa - Federal College of Education (Special), Oyo (ex officio)
- Mrs. Mojisola Ekure - Federal College of Education, Katsina (North West zonal coordinator)
- Mrs. Rahamat Tinja - Federal College of Education (Technical), Potiskum (North East zonal coordinator)
- Dr. Mrs. Zipporah Duguryil - Federal College of Education, Panshin (North Central zonal coordinator)
- Mrs. O.T. Kolade-Oje - Federal College of Education, Ikere – Ekiti (South West zonal coordinator)
- Dr. Mrs. Josephine O. Nwachokor - Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba (South South zonal coordinator)
- Mrs. Ugonma A. Ndubisi - College of Education (Technical), Enugu (South East zonal coordinator)
- Sir Anthony Chuwkuba Anih – Enugu State College of Education (Technical), Enugu (patron)
Each of the commissioned educators will return to their college as a UPF representative and Ambassador for Peace and will take the lead in implementing the approval by the National Commission for Colleges of Education.
UPF-Nigeria Secretary General Dr. Raphael Ogar Oko and several Ambassadors for Peace, including George Amechi Foulke Igwesi, Enugu State coordinator of the UPF Ambassadors for Peace, conducted the induction ceremony after a presentation on the UPF Principles for Peace and the strategies for establishing and managing peace clubs in colleges of education.
Responding on behalf of the newly inducted Ambassadors for Peace, Mrs. Mary Oyere Aibangbe of the Federal College of Education, Kano, and the national president of Women in Colleges of Education in Nigeria, thanked the UPF founders for their diverse initiatives for world peace and pledged the determination of her colleagues and herself as well as the entire membership of the association to work with UPF-Nigeria to ensure that peace education and peace clubs are introduced into all the colleges in order to create peaceful communities and train educators for peace.
She directed that each college of education should designate three senior lecturers to represent them at the national-level committee for the implementation of the partnership for peace education in colleges of education. She called on women educators to take the lead in bringing peace to the nation by bringing back their husbands to “correct the failures of Eve who dragged her husband out of the peaceful Garden of Eden.”