The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) will embark on vigorous public education on preventing and containing violent extremism in the face of terrorist attacks in neighbouring countries, especially Burkina Faso, posing a threat to Ghana.
Mr Robert Kwesi Boame, the Acting Oti Regional Director, said a baseline study on the subject would be carried out in the project districts of the eight implementing regions to achieve the goal.
At the Oti Region NCCE District Directors meeting at Dambai, the regional capital, he said the attack on Burkina Faso and the presence of refugees in some communities in the Bawku municipality of the Upper East Region should be enough signal that “terrorists are close to us,” hence the need to face the realities.
He said intra and inter-party, tribal and religious conflicts in some parts of the country served as a fertile ground for terrorist attacks, so there was the need to prevent them.
Mr Boame revealed that the Commission would carry out education on this year’s District Assembly and Unit Committee elections to whip up voter interest in the polls.
He said voter apathy in such elections ought to change since it formed the base structure of the local government system in the country.
Mr Francis Dusey, a Deputy Director of the Commission, charged the District Directors to use the Civic Education Clubs in the schools to sensitise the populace on the principles and objectives of the 1992 Constitution as the fundamental law of the land.
By that, citizens would be conscious of their civic responsibilities, conversant and abreast of their rights.
At the meeting, every district director presented a report on the 2022 performance, challenges and the way forward.
The Commission’s activities this year would be implemented under the theme: “Thirty years of consolidating constitutional democracy: Building national cohesion through civic education and participation in local governance”. —GNA
