By Dr Kaderi Noagah Bukari
Accra, July 23, GNA—Some citizens have questioned the relevance of the National Peace Council (NPC) of Ghana. Some have even raised questions as to whether the NPC exists and is still relevant.
They often ask questions like, “Where is the Peace Council? Why was the Peace Council loud in the past and now suddenly gone to sleep? Is the NPC relevant? Haven’t they outlived their usefulness?” Some people even questioned the silence of the NPC during the 2020 elections, in which eight Ghanaians lost their lives.
All these questions are relevant. However, the NPC exists as an Infrastructure for Peace (I4P) to ensure sustainable peace, promote coexistence and for managing conflicts (over land, natural resources religious differences, contested elections, etc.) and finding internal solutions to specific conflicts and tensions through mediated consensus or multi-stakeholder dialogue (Tongeren, 2011).
Infrastructure for peace, according to Lederach (1997), emphasises a multi-track approach and a multi-stakeholder involvement in peacebuilding that ensures that issues are addressed at different levels of society. Peacebuilding thus requires multi-level and long-term investments targeted at building capacities and structures that can help prevent violent conflicts, manage those that erupt, ensure the implementation of peace agreements, and over time address the structural roots of violent conflict. Therefore, Ghana’s Peace Council represents a national level I4P.
The work of peace is usually not supposed to be media-dominated. What the NPC does and what peace practitioners and mediators do will not and should not always be in the media and public domain. The NPC is a Mediator (a mediation mechanism) as stated in section 3 of Act 818. The NPC does not need to run to the media to announce its achievements or that it is mediating a particular conflict.
Peace is often negotiated, mediated, or acted upon and the tangible results of peace are often seen publicly, rather than right from the beginning of peace processes and publicised in the mass media. Truly in the past, the NPC has always commented on several issues of national importance in Ghana. Thus, past performance of the Council shows that it has publicly condemned some actions of political actors in Ghana. This may be assigned to change in strategy
It is important to understand the historical antecedents of the establishment and formation of the NPC. The NPC originated from experiences of past violent conflicts in Northern Ghana including the resurgence of the Dagbon Conflict in 2002 and the experiences gathered from the activities of the Northern Region Peace Advisory Committee (NRPAC). The NRPAC was a group made up of representatives of Christian and Muslim bodies, Chiefs, Women and Youth groups and security agencies.
This group was spearheaded by the Catholic Archbishop of Tamale, Rt. Rev. Philip Naameh, who decided to focus his initial apostolate as Bishop of Damongo on creating the necessary structures and processes to address issues of recurring conflicts. With the help of the Catholic Relief Services in 1995, Rt. Rev. Naameh initiated the Northern Ghana Peace Project, which later evolved into the Centre for Conflict Transformation and Peace Studies (CECOTAPS). Having learnt from the experiences of the Northern Peace Project and the NRPAC, the NPC was set up administratively in August 2006 by a government decision as part of Ghana’s national architecture for peace.
The instrumental role of President J. A. Kufuor and other prominent citizens including Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson, Maulvi Wahab Adam, the Catholic Church, the Chief Imam, and other people helped in bringing the Peace Council to fruition in 2006. The late President J. E. Mills and the NDC government in 2011 made efforts to provide a constitutional recognition to the NPC which culminated in the passage of the Peace Council Law, Act 818.
Since then, the NPC has worked to bring peace to the grassroots in all the 16 regions. The Peace Council has made significant gains in harmonising and co-ordinating conflict prevention, management and resolution and building sustainable peace through networking and co-ordination as well as strengthening the capacities for conflict prevention, management and resolution and sustainable peace in the country including but not limited to chiefs, women, youth groups and community organisations.
Throughout the years, the Council has undertaken a number of peace activities that have promoted peaceful co-existence at the base level of society. First, at the community level, a number of conflicts exist, and the Council has made efforts to establish peace committees at the doorsteps of communities so that these communities can resolve their own communities using community-based peace approaches.
Since 2011, the NPC has established many community level peace committees. In 2024 alone, over 40 communities have had these committees inaugurated and working. Secondly, the NPC is coordinating efforts at the regional level to prevent violent extremism and terrorism. Ghana is surrounded by countries that have been caught up in the trajectory of violent extremism and terrorism. Through local engagement with key stakeholders at all community levels through education, working together with international organizations, diplomatic missions, CSOs and local NGOs, the NPC has made strides in dealing with violent extremism.
The Regional Peace Councils (RPCs), especially in Northern Ghana and around the border communities, work together with security agencies to provide information, and have done a lot of education and early warning and response mechanisms in preventing violent extremism and radicalisation. As part of this strategy, the NPC is making efforts to resolving conflicts such as farmer-herder conflicts and the Bawku Conflict, which can be manipulated by terrorist groups.
In the past, the NPC has successfully intervened in a number of conflicts. Some of these are the Hohoe-Zongo conflict (2012), Koforidua Chieftaincy conflict (between Kwahumanhene and the Paramount Chief of Koforidua, Ashanti Region Pakyi No.2 chieftaincy/land resource conflict, Asante Akyem Kurofa land resource conflict, Juansa-Gyediem Saviour Church dispute.
Others are the Volta Region (Peki/Tsitoe boundary dispute, Central Region Ekumfi political conflict, Sankore political conflict, and the Hijab disputes in many SHSs.
They have also developed the Road map for dealing with the Vigilante Malaise, Act 999 and set up a committee to Monitor the Code of Conduct for political parties.
The Council has intervened and supported peace efforts in Dagbon, Nandom and Prang, and continues to intervene to resolve the protracted Bawku conflict, Bimbilla Conflict and the Alavanyo and Nkonya conflict.
Since 2008, the NPC has been increasing awareness on the use of non-violent strategies to prevent, manage and resolve conflict and build sustainable peace in run-up to elections. In all election cycles, the NPC has helped to reduce tensions during the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020. In every election year, the NPC rolls-out nationwide programmes on peace, civic and voter education, and engages the Electoral Commission, trying to ensure that the Electoral Commission is a fair player.
After the 2020 election, the Council has mediated to ensure the Electoral Commission ensures fairness, transparency and engagement with all stakeholders especially political parties. Through the efforts of the Council, the NDC has returned to the IPAC. The Council has continued to both publicly and in camera engage the Electoral Commission towards ensuring free and fair elections in the 2024 elections.
One of the things we do not know is that the NPC behind the scenes has criticised and engaged governments, the security agencies, the electoral Commission and other groups for some decisions, actions and inactions. The NPC is also minded by its constitutional limits and knows that peace and advocacy cannot be forced on any group but only through dialogue that we can ensure and maintain peace. Therefore, public criticisms and talking to the media does not build peace; peace is a silent antidote that cures disunity and ensures societal harmony and co-existence. It is worth reiterating that the Council is pivotal to the maintenance of peace in this country; it is instrumental in all its efforts to sustain peace at all levels.
We may all have doubts about the Council, but it is a constitutional establishment that has been helping to build the peace that Ghana has enjoyed over the years. The Council faces a number of challenges, and as mentioned, the issue of funding is a big problem. NPC continues to draw resources and funds from the Interior Ministry. Its status as a Council needs to change. There is the need to transform it to a Commission status just like the Electoral Commission, the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) with real powers to fulfil its mandate.
The Council should be truly independent body that draws its own funds directly from the Consolidated Fund, rather than depending on the Interior Ministry for funding. This is a key factor to ensure that the Council becomes effective for the performance of its functions. I want to urge every Ghanaian, irrespective of the political, ethnic, religious, or ideological belief that you hold, that the Peace Council remains a hope for us. Infrastructures for Peace are cornerstones of peace in any society. A society that lacks infrastructure for peace will degenerate into chaos.
Criticisms of the NPC are in order and Ghanaians have every right to criticise the work of the NPC and what it must do to ensure positive peace in Ghana. The Council remains a key cornerstone for peacebuilding in Ghana. Businesses and all of us can contribute at least a token to the National Peace Fund to help the work of the NPC to prevent them from relying so much on government for funding. Imagine the cost of violence or war to businesses in Ghana. Peace is a collective goal and common good that we all must invest in. The NPC can help us in this regard. If the NPC fails, our peace is in jeopardy.
Let’s support the NPC. Thank you.
GNA
The author is a lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, Department of Peace Studies.