Former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has presented the signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Nigeria and the International Parliament for Tolerance and Peace, IPTP in Montenegro.
Ekweremadu, who is Nigeria’s sole founding Member and representative at the Parliament, presented the MoU consummated on Nigeria’s behalf by the President of the Nigerian Senate and Chairman of the National Assembly, Senator Ahmed Lawan, at the ongoing procedural session of the Parliament in the southeastern European nation.
This was even as the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Zdravko Krivokapic, has while meeting with the parliamentarians on Thursday, expressed support for the ideals of peace and tolerance espoused by the IPTP.
Presenting the MoU to Dr. Ahmed Bin Mohamed Al-Jawaran, President of the Global Council for Tolerance and Peace (GCTP), parent body of IPTP, at the Friday’s plenary session, Ekweremadu expressed the gratitude of the National Assembly and Nigerian people to the specialiased parliament, noting that it would open a new vista of opportunities and collaborations for Nigeria and her people.
“Ours is an emerging democracy and I believe that the MoU completed today will benefit Nigeria in the forms of greater inter-parliamentary collaborations and opportunities to learn from the experience of others in nation-building and strengthening the values of democracy, justice, peace, and tolerance.
“Importantly, it will enable Nigerian parliamentarians to benefit from training and capacity-building programmes sponsored by the IPTP and also open to Nigerians and her youth the doors of various fully funded post-graduate degree programmes in the areas of peace building, conflict resolution, mediation, and tolerance in top notch universities around the world”.
Consummating the MoU, President of the Global Council for Tolerance and Peace, Dr. Al-Jawaran, said the articles of the MoU were in line with the objectives of the IPTP to promote inter-parliamentary collaboration and engender a new global culture of tolerance and peace.
In his remarks, the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Krivokapic, while commending the IPTP on its resilience in advancing global peace, expressed his country’s commitment to the values espoused the global parliament.
“I am glad that Montenegro hosted parliamentarians from 41 countries, confirming that it belongs to the global trends, procedures and that it shares the same values and goals with the international partners, which are based on cooperation, tolerance, and peace”, he added.