The Ashanti Regional Secretariat of the National Peace Council has told the youth in the country to play an active role in the protection of the nation’s peace.
The Reverend Emmanuel Badu, the Regional Executive Secretary, said they stood to benefit immensely from a peaceful and stable country and that was why they must support efforts by various state actors at ensuring that there was tranquillity.
He noted that young people accounted for more than 90 per cent of all deaths in African wars fought in 2015.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the Peace Ambassadors Club and training workshop on conflict prevention and violent extremism for students of Islamic Senior High School (SHS) in Kumasi.
The Peace Ambassadors Club was inaugurated with support from the Commonwealth Secretariat.
The goal is to educate and equip the youth with knowledge and skills on non-violence approaches and mechanisms in resolving their differences.
The Rev Amoah said young people in the society could play a crucial role in positively transforming conflict situations and in building the foundations of a democratic and peaceful society.
Their youthful exuberance and eagerness to participate in decision-making activities that affected them sometimes made them prone to being manipulated by older people to cause mayhem and perpetrate acts of violence.
He said it was therefore important to explore ways to increase the inclusive representation of the young people in decision making at all levels and to also expose them to mechanisms for conflict prevention and resolution.
He advised the students to use the knowledge and skills they would acquire to enhance social cohesion and development.
Alhaji Ustaz Ahmed Seidu, the Secretary to the Ashanti Regional Chief Imam, said efforts to sustain the peace and prevent conflict should focus on empowering the youth to become major stakeholders in the maintenance of peace in their communities.
Conflict, he noted, would always be part of the human society and what was important was to put in place mechanisms and peace infrastructure to manage such conflicts to prevent them from escalating into violence.
Source: Ghana News Agency