Youth must play vital role in ensuring peace — NCCE to youth at Gomoa Ankamu

Alhaji Aliyu Mohammed, Deputy Central Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has encouraged the youth to play vital role in ensuring peace in their communities.

Speaking at a town hall meeting on national cohesion and inclusive participation in governance: the case of secession and violent extremism at Gomoa Ankamu, the NCCE Director further encouraged the youth to delegate themselves as watchdogs in their communities and be on the lookout for activities that were likely to mar the country’s peace.

The town hall meeting was put together by the Gomoa West Directorate of the NCCE with support from the National Security Ministry and it aimed at empowering the citizenry to stand for national cohesion and inclusive participation.

It was a follow-up of the youth activist’s workshop organised earlier this year and broadly sought to promote national cohesion and peaceful coexistence, especially where the country’s peace and security was being threatened by violet extremisms and secessionist groups.

Alhaji Mohammed noted that social development came through national cohesion where citizens remained united as one people and underscored the need to maintain peace and unity in the country.

He observed that unguided desires and selfish interest on the part of some political leaders, religious and cultural differences have threatened national cohesion of Ghana for a long time.

He made reference to Cote D’Ivoire’s general elections and the effect it had on its citizens simply because of the citizens were unable to carry on as one people and allowed political differences to have adverse impact on their lives.

Alhaji Mohammed spoke about violent extremism as a threat to national cohesion and called on the citizenry to be vigilant and watch out for the activities of the people they lived with especially new residents.

The Deputy Regional Director further residents to be a check on each other and look out for the work they do, who they hanged out with and where they reside. And report any suspicious activity to the police or any opinion leader.

This, he underscored was an active process of community participation and a fulfillment of their civic responsibility as citizens of the state.

The Deputy Regional Director educated the participants on the Public Order Act and Related Offences Act, Alternative Dispute Resolution and the Demonstration Process and called on the youth to use appropriate channels to have their grievances addressed.

Nana Obu Kwansah I, Adonteng-Hene of Gomoa Ankamu remarked that in order to promote peace in Ghana, the citizens should try and make things fall in their right places so as not to create unnecessary tensions.

Nana Kwansah cited an example of the Public Service, where there were a lot of staff who were due for retirement, but were still in active service making the unemployment rate very high.

Very Rev. Joseph Sarfo Anning of the Mt. Zion Methodist Church acknowledged the good effort of the NCCE in organizing such an educative event.

“As a nation, we and our leaders must work together to reach a common goal. We all have responsibilities to perform and we should desist from solely blaming our leaders when things go wrong”, he said.

Rev. Anning stressed that Ghana could be a peaceful nation when all preach and practice peace in their daily lives, and become ambassadors for peace.

“Change is inevitable so we must all embrace it when the need arises”, he added.