Stakeholders must celebrate Nigeria’s diversity, foster acceptance of different religions, cultures – Electoral Hub

A think-tank group, Electoral Hub, has called on the stakeholders in the political space to celebrate the country’s diversity, foster acceptance of different religions, culture, region, generation, sex and (dis)ability.

This was contained in a statement released by the group to commemorate the International Day for Tolerance 2022.

“The statement reads, “Let us shun intolerance and join hands together to safeguard the integrity of the electoral process and ensure that 2023 general elections are free, fair, credible, and widely acceptable. The Electoral Hub and the Initiative for Research, Innovation, and Advocacy in Development join the rest of the world to celebrate the International Day for Tolerance.

“The essence of marking the International Day for Tolerance is to celebrate diversity and tolerance in practice and to ensure that we remember to create opportunities for each other’s opinions. If opinions or ideas are objectionable or indefensible in our eyes, it is our duty to speak up and refute them. We must, however, try to understand the perspectives of others to develop a dialogue and build a mutual understanding, culminating in peaceful co-existence.

“Tolerance is respecting the rights of others to have an opinion or practice. Worth mentioning is that tolerance is beyond passive acceptance of another person but brings obligations to act. Equally, tolerance must be taught, nurtured, and defended. Tolerance calls for governments investing in people through education, inclusion, and opportunities. In other words, nations must be founded on respect for human rights, where fear, distrust, and marginalisation are replaced by pluralism, participation, and respect for differences.

“This is even more pertinent as we go into the 2023 general election. Nigeria is a diverse country with over 250 ethnic groups and over 500 languages but there is unity in our diversity; there is strength in our numbers; as Nigerians we need to learn to co-exist with one another tolerate our differences to achieve a violent free 2023 general election.

“Intolerance breeds electoral malpractices such as electoral violence, threats, harassments, fake news, misinformation, and disinformation etc. The Electoral Hub, therefore, calls on all electoral stakeholders to do away with all forms of intolerance to safeguard the integrity of the electoral process and ensure that 2023 general election are free, fair, credible, and widely acceptable. We urge Nigerians to shun electoral violence, disengage from spreading fake news, and religious and traditional leaders to preach the message of tolerance.”

The UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 51/95 declaring 16 November as International Day for Tolerance in 1996. Noting that the call to practice tolerance was written into the identity of the UN 70 years ago, the theme for this year’s celebration is, “Tolerance is respect, acceptance, and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world’s cultures, our forms of expression, and ways of being human.”