Some youth in the Sissala West District have bemoaned the increasing use of intemperate language by political party communicators and verbal attacks on “political opponents” on campaign platforms including radio and social media.
They said such attitudes had the tendency to incite violence in the district during the upcoming elections if not checked.
The youth, therefore, called on traditional and religious leaders, the District Security Council and other stakeholders to impress on the political parties’ leadership to call their communicators to order to help preserve the peace of the district and the country.
They raised these concerns at Gwollu during the second phase of engagement in promoting peaceful elections and countering violence extremism in the district.
It was organised by the Sissala West District Office of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) under the “Preventing and Containing Violent Extremism (PCVE) action in Ghana” project, funded by the European Union (EU).
The engagement was aimed at deepening the youth’s knowledge and understanding of peace building, community surveillance, promoting tolerance and social cohesion mechanisms for countering violent extremism.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr Mustapha Iddrisu, the Sissala West District Director of the NCCE, indicated that the Commission recognised that the youth needed proper nurturing, empowering and the creating of an enabling environment for them to achieve their full potentials and aspirations.
He said that was why the NCCE had rolled out several youth-centered programmes geared towards promoting youth participation in governance, fighting against violent extremism and promoting peaceful coexistence and national cohesion.
“This engagement is aimed at tapping into the energies of the youth to promote peaceful coexistence and build community resilience against violent extremism by improving their knowledge on issues such as peace building mechanisms, building social cohesion, community surveillance and triggers of violent extremism”, Mr Iddrisu said.
Mr Iddrisu said the youth must support the effort of the Commission in promoting peace by leading the peace campaign wherever they found themselves.
The participants, drawn from youth groups and camps in the district were taken through building resilience to resist any appeal to engage in violent acts and joining extremist groups.
The youth issued a communique at the engagement, pledging to participate actively in the upcoming 2024 elections; eschew violence; tolerate religious, ethnic and political diversity and serve as peer educators to promote public awareness of violent extremism among others.
Source: GNA
