Peace Starts at Home, First Lady Tinubu Tells Nigerians

For First Lady Oluremi Tinubu, the path to a peaceful Nigeria begins somewhere quite ordinary: the family dinner table, the living room, the everyday conversations between parents and children.

In her message marking the 2026 International Day of Peace on Monday, she said enduring peace must first take root within families before it can extend to the wider society.

“Peace begins in our homes and extends to our schools, workplaces, and communities. It is strengthened through tolerance, patience, justice, mutual respect, and dialogue,” the First Lady said.

Mrs Tinubu framed this year’s observance, themed ‘Invest in Peace — For Everyone, Everywhere, Every Day,' as a reminder that lasting peace is not something government or institutions can deliver alone.

“The ‘International Day of Peace 2026,’ with the theme ‘Invest in Peace — For Everyone, Everywhere, Every Day,’ reminds us that lasting peace requires the commitment and participation of all of us,” she said.

She stressed that the responsibility for building a peaceful society rests on everyone, and that the values needed to sustain harmony should be nurtured first at home before being carried into schools, workplaces and communities.

Tolerance, patience, justice, mutual respect and dialogue, she said, remain the essential ingredients for peaceful coexistence — starting at the family level and rippling outward across the nation.

The First Lady also called on Nigerians to resist tendencies that deepen divisions, urging them instead to hold on to the values that unite them.

“I encourage all Nigerians to reject division and embrace the values that unite us as one people. Let us invest in peace through our words, choices, and actions every day,” she said.

For Mrs Tinubu, peace is not just something to be declared on occasions like this one — it is something lived out daily, in the small choices families and individuals make toward one another.

She closed her message by wishing Nigerians and the wider international community a happy International Day of Peace 2026.