Wa,- Mr John Yibile, the Upper West Regional Deputy Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has stated that Ghana’s peace and security is not dependent on the security forces alone but rather the collective responsibility of all citizens.
He said it was for this reason that the NCCE had been organizing several fora under the European Union (EU) sponsored Preventing Electoral Violence and Providing Security to the Northern Border Regions of Ghana (NORPREVSEC) Project, to help create awareness and a security-conscious citizenry.
Mr Yibile who stated this while delivering a speech on peace and security as a cornerstone to national development during the Regional Stakeholder’s meeting on violent extremism said this was part of the collective national effort to promote peace, state security, respect for human rights, rule of law, and development.
“The vigilance, apolitical and professional nature of the security services in the region without any master to please, held at bay the spillover of the activities of the Islamic fundamentalist in the Sahel Region”, he said.
He pointed out that Ghana was a multi-party, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious state and cautioned all to remember that no political party, ethnic or religious group would survive if the country perished under the dissolvent action of ethnic, religious, or political party fanaticism.
Mr Yibile noted therefore that the best form of struggle against any political, ethnic, or religious extremism is a consciousness about the conditions for the survival of all ethnic, religious, and political groups through greater strengthening and the full development of the whole national population.
On the media, the Deputy Regional Director of NCCE noted that a vibrant and well articulate media was a prerequisite for social cohesion and national integration, adding that a patriotic media should therefore not only be fair, accurate, objective, and non-partisan but also the one, which seeks to create a sense of national belonging and political culture of tolerance.
Touching on the 1992 Constitution, Mr Yibile pointed out that the Constitution Review Commission’s proposal to amend the constitution for the election of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) remained dear to the people of Ghana.
“This will improve grassroots participatory democracy, collective preference, political accountability and will put an end to the perennial upheavals, which usually characterized the endorsement of MMDCEs”, he said.
Superintendent of Police, Mr Reynolds Manteaw, said the threat of terrorists attacking their communities was real, adding that awareness creation can help reduce the individual’s risk of becoming a terrorist target.
He noted that Ghana anti-terrorism law, Act 762 of 2008, seeks to combat terrorism, suppress and detect acts of terrorism to prevent the territory, resource, and financial sources of Ghana from being used to commit a terrorist act, to protest the rights of people in Ghana to live in peace, freedom, and security.
Source: Ghana News Agency
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