Politics

Akwetey: Let’s promote peace, stability through dialogue

Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, Executive Director of the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), has observed that although the nation is enjoying a reasonable measure of peace and stability at the moment, she has experienced its own share of political violence in the past.

He explained that it was possible to learn from other countries experiences, and ensure that the peaceful and stable political atmosphere in the country, did not ever escalate beyond a certain level.

Dr Akwetey made the observation at a ‘Ghana-Colombia Conversation on Democracy and Development-Ending Armed Conflict through Sustained Dialogue in Colombia: Lessons for Ghana,’ in Accra under the auspices of IDEG to promote peace and stability in Ghana.

He underscored the need for preventing armed political conflict through sustained dialogue in order to implement peace and stability deals effectively and efficiently to ensure leadership needed utmost trust and respect of the citizenry.

Dr Akwetey indicated that seeking peaceful and stable dialogue required effective and efficient collaboration between both parties in order to build a political culture towards sustained peace and stability.

Madam Claudia Quintero, Colombian Ambassador to Ghana, said Colombia had a lot to share with Ghana, regarding preventing armed political conflict through sustained dialogue after more than fifty years of political conflict in Colombia, the country had been able to implement peace deals effectively and efficiently.

“Seeking peaceful dialogue, requires effective and efficient collaboration between opposing sides, political leadership also needs the utmost trust and respect of the citizenry, for negotiations towards peace to be effective and efficient, the leadership needs to be seen as being for freedoms and rights of the citizenry.

“It is important to create an atmosphere in which truth is easily determined, so that the citizenry are not deprived of their human rights,” Madam Quintero cautioned.

Professor Arlene Tickner, Faculty of Political Science, Government and International Relations, Universidad del Rosario, Bogota, Columbia, stressed on the need to consciously build a political culture that completely prohibited political violence during elections, saying, “Building such a culture, serves the peace building processes better than adopting harsh enforcement methods.” –GNA

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