The Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA), a regional civil society organisation (CSOs), has expressed satisfaction over the current outcome of the dialogue between the two major political parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to end vigilantism.
“The decision by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to include civil society organisations in their dialogue towards eradicating political vigilantism in the country is a laudable one,” it noted.
Mrs Theodora Anti, the Programmes Manager of FOSDA, indicated that “engaging stakeholders such as representatives of CSOs, security agencies and religious bodies, will expand the conversation from political to social, economic, and technical underpinnings of the phenomenon for a comprehensive and sustainable solution to the issue of vigilantism in the country.
“An agreement reached by the two major political parties on the immediate scope of the dialogue, including key stakeholders and experts is inclusive and commendable since civil society involvement is crucial to the dialogue and efforts to address vigilantism because there are various levels of expertise and experiences within the sphere that will be helpful to the processes.
“Civil society engages the politicians, political parties, foot soldiers and the people from grassroots to national level, hence, will have a lot to bring to bear, CSOs are also social engineers, with built capacities to solve social challenges.
“It will be important, however, that the relevant stakeholders and civil society are invited to participate, be counterproductive, if despite the space created the right organisations and experts are not engaged and we commend the National Peace Council for laudable role played so far.
“We urge them to remain independent and objective for the country to be at the cusp of ending vigilantism provided the citizenry are all ready to sacrifice, accommodate and let Ghana win,” Mrs Anti said.
It would be recalled that President Akufo-Addo in his State of the Nation Address in Parliament called on the leadership of the two main leading political parties (NPP and NDC) to help find a lasting solution to the menace of political vigilantism in the country. –GNA
