Africa-Press – Tanzania. PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan on Friday met Catholic Church leaders during which she called on Tanzanians to use religious institutions in building national unity for smooth implementation of development projects.
The President used the platform to advance the request cognisant with the fact that religious leaders and institutions have the power to raise awareness and influence attitudes, behaviours and practices.
They shape social values in line with faith-based teachings. In her remarks President Samia asked religious institutions and leaders to be active in advocating for peace, unity and tranquility since they are crucial for the country’s progress in all aspects.
It is clearly understood that religious leaders and faith communities are the largest and best-organised civil institutions in the world, claiming the allegiance of billions of believers and bridging the divides of race, class and nationality. Religious leaders are often the most respected figures in their communities.
They play a powerful role in shaping attitudes, opinions and behaviours because their members trust them.
President Samia, like her predecessors, has always been calling upon every Tanzanian to embrace peace simply because for any nation to prosper peace and tranquility have to prevail.
It is agreed all over the world that peace is a pre-requisite for development as a whole because it creates an enabling environment for the fundamentals of a society’s progress: human capital formation, infrastructure development, markets subject to the rule of law, and so on. In the absence of peace, education and health structures break down, systems to provide infrastructure disintegrate, and legal commerce is crippled.
Critically, peace also frees up resources, both financial and human, that would otherwise be diverted to controlling (or creating) violence. Intuitively, we’ve long known that peace and development go hand in hand. Generally speaking, the more peaceful a society, the more prosperous and stable.
Moreover, there is a strong relationship between business enterprise and peace. In a 2008 worldwide study conducted by the United Nations Global Compact, 80 per cent of senior managers felt the size of their markets grew with increasing peacefulness and 79 per cent felt costs decreased with improving peacefulness.
Though religious leaders are the ones who were targeted by the President’s message the fact remains that peace building starts at individual and family levels.
Every Tanzanian must understand that Tanzania is our home land, meaning that safeguarding peace is a civic duty of each one of us.
