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T.B. Yayi: Address to Peace Summit 2023, Session IV-A
Written by H.E. Dr. Thomas Yayi Boni, President (2006-2016), Benin
Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Address to Peace Summit 2023
May 2-5, 2023
Dear friends, I would like to thank sincerely and pay tribute to Dr. Moon. She invited us for this Universal Peace Federation Summit. I would like also to greet those of you in this room and also all the participants in the Summit. I would like to thank sincerely the Universal Peace Federation, which kindly invited me to take part in this high-level reflection on “Contemporary Challenges to Global Order: Toward a World Culture of Peace.”
My purpose in this regard will first be to share with you my deep conviction that lasting peace can only come from Jesus Christ. I’m a Christian. Don’t be shocked. We are here to have a dialogue of religions. I would like to share my conviction that peace can come from Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. Of course, human peace is temporary, ephemeral. We have known world war and all kinds of conflicts and tensions. Sustainable peace comes from God.
I will talk about the situation of world peace and examine with you some suggestions for the construction of a lasting peace on the basis of a strong contribution from Africa. Today we are talking about Africa.
Lasting peace comes from God. I’d like to base my comments with reference to the word of God contained in the most Holy Bible. We say that the word in the beginning was God. Everybody has his own opinion. I’m Christian, but we listen to each other. God is at the beginning of everything, especially Genesis 1:1 and also in John. Furthermore, the peace we are talking about is an eminent attribute of God as it is written in I Corinthians 14:33. Namely, God is not a God of disorder, but a God of peace. That is what Gideon teaches us by baptizing the altar he built to the Lord God in Judges 6:24. God is not only peace, but he’s a guarantor of it in the world if the latter remains in relationship with him, as illustrated in Leviticus 26:3-12.
Finally, the lordship of Christ rests on the peace of which he is the prince and the owner, as evidenced by Isaiah 9:5 and John 14:27. We have to love God above all, love God before we love our dear ones. We have to have His love in our hearts so that we can share the love with others.
Now I’d like to talk about the following: Did man respect the will of his Creator? At the end of the Second World War, humanity believed that it was finally going to enter a new era, a new world order, that of peace and generalized prosperity. The great suffering that was endured and the general feeling of having come close to the irreparable had indeed given rise to hope that wisdom would henceforth prevail in human relations.
Thus, the new institution, the United Nations, created on the ashes of the League of Nations, carried all the hopes. The nations were finally going to take into account the formidable aspirations for peace which have always inhabited men of all nations, colors, races, ethnic groups, conditions and regions.
Unfortunately, this hope proved to be short-lived, as the world was soon plunged into the Cold War between the United States of America and the Soviet Union. From then until the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the fight for world dominion was uninterrupted between these two superpowers. In fact, a third world war was avoided only because the confrontations were relocated until then in the Balkans, in Asia or in Africa, as in the case today in Sudan.
We can also see that the strife of the Western model, far from bringing peace, has seen inequalities within states and between states grow. The situation has, moreover, generated a reality today, namely, international terrorism with its thinkers, its armies and its militants.
In view of the above, men have more than ever turned their backs on the Creator in the management of their affairs. The developed countries that have been in charge of the management of the world for the past 75 years have sufficiently shown that they are far from being peacemakers, since they are part of the logic of an exclusive domination of the world.
Moreover, in our contemporary world where new challenges and threats are emerging from all sides, Africa is really in a difficult situation. We can see this with the crisis in Ukraine. We can see that a third world war is looming. Also, there is a risk in Asia. You all know that, right? The United States, the question of China, et cetera.
Our continent is a weak link. However, because it’s not part of the logic of hidden and open war for world domination, it’s today the hope of humanity. New values of empathy, compassion and solidarity, and also finding viable solutions to the many difficulties that beset it, will be a tremendous step towards peace.
Now, I say it’s the weakest link in the chain. As we are so rich, the future of the world is being played in Africa. Nothing can be done without Africa when our material resources are so in demand. God gave us iron. We have to use it for his glory. We should not use iron to create weapons to kill men.
Dear friends, I would like to remind you that our continent is a weak link, and yet we have a great power. We have a great potential in all domains. The general opinion is that the continent as a whole constitutes a geological storehouse. According to the United Nations Economic Commission on Africa, the continent is home to 54% of the world’s reserves of platinum, 78% of diamonds, 40% of chromium and 28% of manganese.
There is also so much energy and oil in Africa. In addition, rare metals essential to advanced technologies such as cobalt are found in abundance in the subsoil of the continent. In the field of energy, Africa is also endowed with resources that are as rich as they are varied. 30% of the world’s oil reserves are in Africa. There is also a significant potential for biomass, hydroelectricity, solar and wind energy.
Beloved, it’s therefore a continent which is extremely rich in its mineral resources and even its history, because it sheltered the Egypt of the pharaohs, the great Bombara and Fulini empires and the brilliant kingdoms of Benin.
But it’s clear that Africa today presents itself as the poorest continent, certainly because historically it has been the victim of a global labor organization which has systematically disorganized it and impoverished its human resources with nearly four centuries of slavery. Moreover, this world labor organization continues to plunder Africa of its natural resources. Added to this are its internal dysfunctions. There’s bad governance.
In summary, I was able to observe in January 2013 at the end of my one-year mandate as chairman of the Conference of Heads of State and Government and the African Union that the source of tension on the continent stems from governance based on discrimination, skin color, regionalism, tribalism, ethnocentrism, ethnic discrimination, and unequal access to public services and resources in our countries. This fighting results in the marginalization of young people and women. Thus, bad governance is a real problem for Africa. We cannot deny this.
Of course, there is also foreign interference. Also, because of the war in Ukraine many people are courting Africa. So how can we move towards peace? What can we do for a lasting peace? For me, peace without Africa is not possible. We need a new leadership of Africa, which is a cradle of mankind. I cannot go into details.
We want to build Africa Project 2023. We have projects related to good governance, so we will be able to create unity. We can become a great world power. I would like to express these ideas. We are the cradle of mankind and we have many capacities. We can reconcile human beings among one another.
As a conclusion, we have to move into action plans. Mrs. Moon asked us to talk more about God and the love of God. We have to re-evangelize Africa. I don’t think only about Christianity, but bring Africa back to God and restoring morality in Africa and fighting drug addiction. We need to restore spirituality and morality in Africa, if I understood what she said. We should hold a summit in Africa to reinforce its unity. We saw the problem of Africa, but we could not solve the problem. I finished my mandate in 2016.
What did we do until now? We have economic projects, but if there is no political unity, how can we build the integration of Africa? To fulfill these conditions, dear friends, we have to organize an international conference. We need a global peace plan in Ukraine, and we have to secure world peace. Finally, we have to democratize the Security Council. You know what I’m talking about. Africa is asking for two permanent seats and two non-permanent seats. I already said we have been asking for a reformation of the institutions of the United Nations.
I proposed to my colleagues that all Africa unite and together we should force the United Nations to accept that Africa have a seat.
I pray that God can bless you, my dear brothers and sisters, and that God can support the march of mankind. Thank you very much.
To go to the Peace Summit 2023 Schedule page, click here.