By Iddi Yire
Accra, April 4, GNA – Ahead of the December 7 general elections, Reverend Dr Ernest Adu-Gyamfi, the Chairman of the National Peace Council (NPC), has appealed to Ghanaians to protect the peace of the nation.
“Let us do our best to protect the peace and stability we have collectively built as a nation,” Rev Dr Adu-Gyamfi stated on Thursday in Accra, at the official opening of a 2024 Election Planning Retreat workshop, which was organised by the NPC for the Members of its Governing Board and all the 16 Regional Peace Council Chairmen.
It was on the theme: “Building Consensus to Strengthen Mechanisms for Cohesion, Political Tolerance, Peacebuilding and Nation-building.”
He urged participants at the meeting to sustain the spirit of teamwork by sharing ideas, notes, and information from their regions, especially their success stories to enrich their collective effort.
“We expect valuable contributions from all of us to this meeting as we strive to achieve the Council’s vision of an environment where people can engage in their lawful activities confident that the institutions, mechanisms, and capacities for mediating differences and grievances are effective and responsive.”
He noted that it was his firm belief that with their collective effort, Ghana would once again sail through this election and continue to be a beacon of hope for democracy in Africa.
He reiterated that the object of the National Peace Council was to facilitate and develop mechanisms for conflict prevention, management, and resolution and to build sustainable peace in the country.
He said their role was to encourage cooperation among all relevant stakeholders in peacebuilding in Ghana; declaring that “we are to do this by using cooperative problem-solving skills to produce outcomes that can lead to conflict transformation, social, political, and religious reconciliation, and transformative dialogues.”
Rev Adu-Gyamfi said this year’s elections presented another challenge that would test the resilience of Ghana’s democracy.
He said to ensure a peaceful country before, during and after the elections, some activities had been lined up by the NPC, of which key amongst them was the creation of an inter-party dialogue platform, which came out of a recommendation during the post-election dialogue held in Ada after the 2020 general election.
He said a platform had been created for the political parties to meet quarterly with NPC to discuss issues relating to building peace and coexistence for effective multi-party democracy in our country.
The Chairman said with the support of their partners such as the United Nations (UN), United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Commonwealth, ECOWAS, International Republican Institute and West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), they hope to implement a lot of activities before, during and after the elections.
“Despite the challenges, stress, discouragement, and insults that have characterized our work, I would like to encourage you to stay focused in ensuring that the mandate of the NPC is executed without any hindrance,” Rev Dr Adu-Gyamfi said.
Mr Henry Quartey, the Minister of the Interior, lauded the NPC for planning and strategizing ahead of national elections in December.
He called on all the actors in Ghana’s elections, namely political parties, the Electoral Commission, the Ghana Police Service, other security services and civil society groups to play their respective roles without fear or favour to ensure the integrity of the general elections.
He urged Ghanaians to strive to put Ghana first and make a conscious effort at making their country better than they came to meet it.
GNA