By Kingsley Mamore
Dambai (O/R), Sept 12, GNA – The Oti Regional Peace Council has engaged Assembly Members and other key stakeholders in the Nkwanta South Municipality on practical strategies for conflict prevention, management and resolution to strengthen peace, social cohesion and community resilience.
The engagement, led by Mr Peterkin Yentumi Gyinae, Chairman of the Oti Regional Peace Council, formed part of the Council’s sustained peacebuilding initiatives aimed at empowering community-level actors to identify potential sources of tension and intervene before they escalated into violence.
It brought together Assembly Members and other stakeholders to deliberate on the importance of early warning and early response, dialogue, mediation, peaceful dispute resolution and inclusive community engagement.
The initiative also sought to strengthen the capacity of local leaders to understand the dynamics of conflicts within their respective electoral areas and use their positions to promote tolerance, peaceful coexistence and constructive engagement among residents.
Mr Paul Akonor, Regional Secretary of the Peace Council, who led participants through the discussions, addressed key areas including conflict prevention and management, conflict resolution, dialogue and mediation, social cohesion, as well as early warning and early response mechanisms.
He said effective peacebuilding required a collective approach, stressing that government institutions and security agencies alone could not guarantee sustainable peace without the active participation and commitment of local communities.
Mr Akonor said Assembly Members were strategically positioned to contribute significantly to conflict prevention because of their direct and regular interaction with residents and their understanding of the concerns confronting families, women, youth, traditional leaders and other groups within their electoral areas.
He urged the Assembly Members to use their influence and proximity to the people to identify emerging tensions, encourage dialogue, and discourage actions that could deepen divisions or trigger violence.
“Assembly Members are very close to the people and therefore have an important role to play in identifying early signs of conflict and helping to address them before they become serious,” he said.
He encouraged them to strengthen communication with traditional authorities, religious leaders, women and youth groups, security agencies and other relevant institutions to ensure that credible information on emerging tensions reached the appropriate authorities promptly.
Mr Akonor further urged participants to make dialogue and mediation central to their approach to resolving disagreements, explaining that early intervention could prevent minor disputes from developing into prolonged conflicts with serious social and economic consequences.
He said peacebuilding should not be limited to responding to violent incidents, but must also involve addressing grievances, rebuilding trust, promoting inclusion and creating opportunities for affected communities to participate meaningfully in local development.
Recurring conflicts
The Peace Council noted that Nkwanta South had experienced recurring conflicts over the years, with the situation affecting lives and livelihoods, disrupting socio-economic activities, displacing families, and undermining development efforts.
It said while government, traditional authorities, security agencies, civil society organisations and other stakeholders had made efforts to restore and maintain peace, there was the need for sustained community-level engagement to address the underlying causes of conflict and prevent their recurrence.
The Council therefore called for stronger collaboration among local leaders and institutions to identify grievances early and create safe platforms where individuals and groups could discuss their concerns without resorting to violence.
It also urged stakeholders to pay close attention to early warning indicators, including inflammatory statements, misinformation, threats, mobilisation of groups and other developments that could create fear, mistrust or tension within communities.
The Council said such information should be shared responsibly with the appropriate authorities to facilitate timely intervention.
Dialogue and social cohesion
Mr Akonor emphasised that dialogue and mediation remained important tools for resolving disputes, particularly in communities where relationships had been strained by prolonged disagreements.
He said open communication, mutual understanding, and inclusive engagement were essential to rebuilding trust and restoring relationships among communities and groups affected by conflict.
He encouraged Assembly Members to create opportunities for residents to express their concerns and grievances peacefully while ensuring that vulnerable groups were not excluded from community-level peacebuilding processes.
On social cohesion, the Council urged stakeholders to promote mutual respect, tolerance, trust, and peaceful coexistence among the diverse groups within the Municipality.
It stressed that the differences among communities and groups should be viewed as an opportunity for cooperation rather than a basis for division.
The Council also called for increased involvement of women and young people in peacebuilding, noting that their participation was essential to creating sustainable mechanisms for conflict prevention and community resilience.
Mr Joseph Awal Antwi, Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Nkwanta South, commended the Peace Council for its continued stakeholder engagements aimed at promoting peace and stability in the Municipality.
He expressed appreciation to Assembly Members for their efforts at the electoral-area level to promote peaceful coexistence and encourage residents to resolve their differences through dialogue and lawful processes.
Mr Antwi said peace was fundamental to the development of the Municipality, stressing that without a stable and peaceful environment, efforts to improve infrastructure, education, healthcare, agriculture, employment and other sectors could be severely undermined.
He therefore appealed to all stakeholders to support initiatives aimed at consolidating the prevailing peace and preventing the resurgence of violence.
The MCE particularly urged aggrieved individuals and groups to resort to lawful channels, including the courts, to seek redress rather than taking the law into their own hands.
He said the courts and other legally mandated institutions had been established to adjudicate disputes and resolve grievances and urged residents to respect the rule of law.
Mr Antwi cautioned that resorting to violence could further complicate existing disputes and impose additional hardships on innocent residents, particularly women, children, the elderly and vulnerable persons.
He said the Assembly would continue to collaborate with the Peace Council, traditional authorities, security agencies and other stakeholders to strengthen peacebuilding and development in the Municipality.
Sustaining peace
The Oti Regional Peace Council reaffirmed its commitment to working closely with traditional authorities, Assembly Members, women leaders, youth groups, religious bodies, civil society organisations, security agencies and other stakeholders to build a peaceful, inclusive and resilient Nkwanta South Municipality.
It stressed that peace should not be understood merely as the absence of violence, but should also encompass justice, mutual respect, trust, inclusion and equal opportunities for people to contribute to and benefit from development.
The Council encouraged the Assembly Members to translate the lessons and practical recommendations from the engagement into concrete actions within their respective electoral areas.
It expressed the hope that the initiative would strengthen community-level mechanisms for early warning, conflict prevention, peaceful dispute resolution, mediation, and reconciliation.
The Council said sustained dialogue, collaboration and shared responsibility remained critical to securing lasting peace in Nkwanta South and the Oti Region as a whole.
It further called on all residents to become active partners in peacebuilding by rejecting violence, avoiding inflammatory rhetoric, verifying information before sharing it and using appropriate channels to resolve grievances.
The Council said a peaceful Nkwanta South would create the necessary environment for residents, businesses, investors and development partners to contribute effectively to the Municipality’s socio-economic development.
GNA
Edited by Maxwell Awumah /Kenneth Odeng Adade