Aflao (VR), Dec 06, GNA- The youth of Ketu South Constituency have vowed to give peace a chance before, during and after the elections saying, they could not afford to trade the country’s peace for war.
They said the hardships and sufferings visited on vulnerable groups, including women and children in times of civil strife elsewhere on the continent, were enough to commit to keep the prevailing peace for the development of the country.
The resolution was made at a day’s political party youth activist workshop organised by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in partnership with the European Union (EU).
It is aimed at ensuring violent free elections, transparent and a peaceful political environment before, during and after the elections.
The workshop, which had participants numbering about 52, selected from the various political parties, including National Democratic Congress, New Patriotic Party and Ghana Union Movement, saw presentations from various speakers, a film show, and youth group focused discussions, which all centred on the need to keep the peace.
Mama Adzewoe of Dey Foundation, a local organisation with interest in peaceful elections, presenting the outcomes of deliberations of the participants, said the youth, the future leaders of the country must consider as paramount the country’s peace and to do all in their power to protect it.
“There’s nothing like small or big war. War is war and its consequences are disastrous,” she said.
“As we saw from the film shown to us of the civil war in Sierra Leone, a lot of atrocities were visited on innocent children and unarmed civilians, both men and women. We saw cries, weeping, hunger, brutality everywhere. We also saw the excesses of the military men who were sent to keep peace during the political unrest. We don’t want that in our country.
How do we avoid that? As the future of this country, much responsibility lies on us to make conscious effort to be peace-loving, tolerant of opposing views and reject offers from our political parties to cause violence. It’s important to know that peace is all that we have and it’s priceless.”
Mr Oral-Robert Amenyo, Deputy Director, Volta Region NCCE in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the Commission had and continued to embark on a number of public education and sensitisation programmes to get the citizenry to uphold peace before, during and after the elections on Monday.
Among those in attendance at the workshop to speak on the importance of peaceful elections were Chairman of the Inter-Party Dialogue Committee, the Municipal Information Officer, and Madam Evelyn Klokpodzi, the Municipal NCCE Director.
GNA