The Director General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Garba Abari, has said adopting November 16 as an annual National Tolerance and Peaceful Co-existence Day, will promote unity in Nigeria.
Speaking on Thursday in Abuja at an event on national tolerance and peaceful co-existence, he explained that the day will be set aside each year to celebrate the country’s unity in diversity.
The NOA boss said it would also be a day to promote awareness of national ethics such as discipline, integrity, dignity of labour, social justice, religious tolerance and self-reliance.
He added that it is common-place for people to subconsciously hold implied and unspoken biases that affect how they think or feel about others from different ethnicities.
According to him, these unconscious biases are the primary reason the society may appear to reflect the absence of inclusion of diversity in the country’s growing democracy.
He noted, “The festival is essential to prime the hearts of Nigerians annually on the need to respect and appreciate our diversities while creating an inclusive system necessary for national development.”
