“Let’s be careful with what we say and how we say it to ensure that it does not bring instability and unnecessary tension into the country,” the Chairman of the National Peace Council, Rev. Dr Ernest Adu-Gyamfi, said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic.

The interview was in the context of how to maintain and deepen the prevailing peace as the country approaches political electioneering season, with the two biggest parties, the New Patriotic Party( NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) preparing to elect their flag bearers.

While the NDC flagbearer and constituency election primaries are scheduled for next month, that of the NPP is in November this year, with the smaller parties also preparing to do the same later in the year.

With a hung parliament split almost equally between the NPP and NDC, the two biggest political have been engaged in different manoeuvring and tactics to appeal to the larger Ghanaian populace to support their bids.

This has come with some comments considered unpalatable to the peace and security of the nation, such as those attributed to the Minister of Food and Agriculture and Member of Parliament for Abetifi, Bryan Acheampong, to the effect that the ruling NPP government would never hand over power to the NDC.

Aside from the political drivers of tension, there are pockets of ethnic and chieftaincy conflicts, chief among them is the age-old Bawku conflict bordering on a protracted chieftaincy misunderstanding.

Not in nation’s interest

Rev. Adu-Gyamfi, who is also the Executive President of the Ghana Baptist Convention and Chancellor of the Ghana Baptist University College, disclosed that his outfit had received several footages of speeches from political actors, especially from the two main parties, threatening violence which, he noted, was not in the best interest of the country and, therefore, must be condemned by all to secure the country’s peace and stability.

The council, he said, had been surprised at certain speeches made by some political actor which promoted violence.

That was in spite of meetings the council had held with political party leaders in recent times, cautioning them to avoid utterances that could destabilised the country.

Meeting with political party leaders

At the meeting, Rev. Dr Adu Gyamfi said, the leaders of the political parties agreed to be decorous in their public speaking and, therefore, wondered whether the leaders were not passing on the decisions to their party members to be decorous in the way they spoke.

“We have several footages. We have heard people.

They have said a lot of things from this party and that party.

They are all speaking.

We think that there is the need for us to bring back these political leaders to the table to re-look some of the decisions that were taken during our last meeting,” he stated.

The politicians, the NPC chairman pointed out, had sometimes defended those reckless statements as rebuttals, in the context that “This person said that and that person also went to say this”.

Rev. Dr Adu-Gyamfi indicated that such positions only came to hurt the nation because “none of them is helpful”.

Wider consultations

As part of measures to safeguard peace in the country, Rev. Adu-Gyamfi said the council would be having a meeting with the security agencies to look at the roadmap to the election and also consider the roles they would be playing towards peaceful elections.

Media houses, he added, had to be careful about the platform they offered to people and must also ensure that people who got onto their platforms did not abuse the public space with reckless statements that would jeopardise the peace of the country.

The council, the NPC chair said, had been quite busy dealing with issues bordering on peace but “just that the public see us when there is election so without electoral activities they think that we are doing nothing”.

292 Peace, security issues

Rev. Adu-Gyamfi stated that the council was currently handling 292 cases bordering on peace and security issues and, therefore, called for support to help resolve some of these issues.

Bawku issue

Touching on the violence in Bawku, Rev. Dr Adu-Gyamfi said there had been several engagements with both sides towards a resolution, but acknowledged that it was a complex issue which called for more stakeholders to collaborate with the NPC for a peaceful settlement.

He indicated that some people were fueling the conflict in that area which made it difficult to resolve, in spite of the enormous efforts which had been made so far.

The Chairman of the National Peace Council, therefore, appealed to all Ghanaians to support the council to restore lasting peace to Bawku, a border town in the Upper East Region, which used to be a sprawling business hub.

Background

The NPC is an independent statutory national peace institution established by The National Peace Council Act, 2011 (Act 818).

Its core function is to prevent, manage, and resolve conflicts and to build sustainable peace.

With its mandate and regional branches, the council has been holding series of peace training programmes for key institutions and individuals, making them ambassadors to promote the peace in the country.

Beneficiaries of the training sessions on how to maintain peace in their communities included queen mothers, metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives.

Others are student leaders and fisher folk to ensure marine security.