Education, most important instrument for youth – Swiss Ambassador at AUN

The Swiss Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Hans-Rudolf Hodel, in Yola to assess the challenges faced by persons displaced by terrorism in Adamawa State, also addressed the American University of Nigeria community.

Hodel urged Nigerian youths to pursue peace through education and maintain dialogue to solve social problems.

“The Students in AUN don’t need this advice,” he went on, “as they are gaining good academic education. The most important thing to do to develop a nation is to educate the young people. Secondly, community members should dialogue to find solutions–just like the AUN-Adamawa Peace Initiative (API)–to solve social problems.”

The AUN President, Dr. Margee Ensign, described Hodel’s visit and lecture as very timely, coming as Nigeria prepares for the Presidential election.

Ambassador Hodel’s talk: “Democracy in Switzerland: Federalism within the Swiss Confederation,” is part of the AUN Diplomatic Lecture Series, which started in 2011 as a forum for interaction between the diplomatic community in Nigeria and the American University of Nigeria community.

The list of visitors has included Dr. Patrick Fay, former Irish Ambassador to Nigeria and now faculty member at AUN, who visited the campus in February 2014 and joined AUN faculty this spring 2015 semester upon his retirement from diplomatic service.

Other distinguished diplomats have included the former EU ambassador to Nigeria, His Excellency Dr. David Macrae, who has also joined AUN, as Executive Vice President, and Mr. Christopher Cooter (Canadian Ambassador to Nigeria), Mr. Moshe Ram (Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria), and Terence McCulley (US ambassador to Nigeria).

The current US ambassador, James Entwistle, spoke at the American University of Nigeria last October.

Explaining the functioning of his own country’s governance style, the diplomat stated that Switzerland practices direct democracy, and just like in Nigeria, the national election is conducted every four years.

In addition, the voting age is 18 and constitutional amendments are ratified via referendums.

But in some ways Switzerland differs from Nigeria.

“Switzerland has a strong and unique federal system, consisting of the federal government, cantons, and the municipalities, except that every canton operates by its own constitution, and the federal government is guided by its own constitution. Power resides more with the cantons.”

As to relations between the two countries, Nigeria shares bilateral relations with Switzerland. As such “Nigeria works with Switzerland to fight illegal immigrants and for a friendly migration policy for legal immigrants.”

On arrival earlier, the Ambassador joined the AUN-Adamawa Peace Initiative team in food distribution to over 4,000 internally displaced persons camping at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church and the New Life Gospel Church, both in Yola.

It is expected that the food ration would reach 80,000 people as each woman has an average of 20 family members to feed.

The Swiss Ambassador was in Adamawa to learn firsthand the predicaments of the internally displaced persons and explore ways the Swiss government can intervene with humanitarian aid.

Asked how his country can support Nigeria in fighting terrorism, Dr. Hodel said Switzerland cannot solve Nigeria’s security problem but can assist with supporting potential peacemakers in attending peace conferences in Switzerland.

Later in an interview with journalists, he said: “The AUN/API model to solve social problems in Nigeria should be emulated… For AUN to be involved with youth engagements, it is very impressive.”

Hodel, who serves concurrently as Ambassador to Chad and Niger, holds a PhD from the University of St. Gallen and has served in many international posts during his distinguished diplomatic career, a career that has taken him to much of Africa, serving as Ambassador and Head of Mission of the Swiss Confederation to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Gabon, and Sao Tomé and Principe, between 2006 and 2008.

He was also the Ambassador and Head of Mission to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama, between 2008 and 2012.  He has served in Switzerland, Turkey, Japan, Austria, and Italy in many different capacities.