Reverend Badu Amoah, the Ashanti Regional Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council (NPC), has affirmed that involvement of the youth in decision-making processes will help transform them from agents of terrorism, conflict and violent extremism to agents of peace building to maintain the country’s stability and cohesion.
“Early warning is the provision of effective, efficient and timely information that allows individuals or groups to be exposed to likely future danger, to take actions to avoid ineffectiveness and prepare for an effective, efficient and timely response,” he observed.
Rev. Amoah admonished the youth to be vigilant and report suspicious characters to law enforcement agencies to help prevent violent extremism and terrorism in the country.
He made the call at the opening ceremony of a three-day workshop on ‘Peace Building, Preventing Violent extremism, Terrorism, Early Warnings and Human Rights and Gender for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Kumasi.
It was organised by NPC in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), aimed at building capacities of participants in preventing violent extremism, terrorism and reinforcing the youth and women in the sector to flourish in an inclusive and equitable manner.
The workshop was aimed at increasing citizens’ engagement to prevent the radicalisation of the youth and also to help create local proactive and participatory approaches to prevent terrorism, violent extremism, build resilience systems to deal with threats and help sustain unity, harmony, cohesion and peace.
According to Rev. Amoah, the training would empower the youth with relevant information to detect, report early signals to the enforcement agencies for immediate action, would also enable them to be security conscious, work towards maintaining the prevailing peace, unity, cohesion and stability.
Simon Osei-Mensah, the Ashanti Regional Minister, stated that investing in and building youth resilience was necessary for the positive growth and development of every society since they contributed significantly to the progress, growth and development.
He noted that building their capacity would help them overcome difficult challenges in their lives because conflicts, terrorism and violent extremism remained an inevitable phenomenon in every society and an equally important part of human existence.
“The youth and women should equip themselves with what is being taught to help make meaningful impact in society by dissuading their minds from conflicts, terrorism and violent extremism,” Mr Osei-Mensah stressed.
