From 18 to 21 september 2014 forty representatives of the various communities of Sant’Egidio, present in Nigeria, gathered in Abuja, the federal State capital. Following the great international peace meeting which took place in Antwerp, Belgium, the titel was “Peace is the Future”.

The delegates questioned themselves on how to assure a future of peace for Nigeria, a country with a high degree of violence and which is now confronted with the violent insurgency of Boko Haram in the northeast. They discussed how to establish, in this atmosphere of tension, a relationship of friendship and mutual respect with muslim leaders and with muslim youth.

They also discussed the ‘revolution of compassion’, of which pope Francis had spoken on the occasion of his visit to the Community of Sant’Egidio in Rome on June 15. Being instruments and workers of this “ribellion of the spirit” is key for christians in a country where so many poor men and women, especially the children and the elderly, suffer.