The Stakeholders for Peace International, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), yesterday commissioned “Bastions of Peace”, a group of selected individuals to pursue the preservation of peace in the country, before, during and after the December 7, elections.
The Bastions of Peace are selected individuals of accomplishments of high stature, including Captain Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey (Rtd); Paramount Chief and President of Owirenkyi Traditional Council, Ehunabobrim Prah Agyensem VI; Vice President of the National House of Chiefs, Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi VII; Rev. Anthony Boakye of the Resurrection Power New Generation Church; Member of Christian Council of Ghana, Dr Paul Boafo, and the Organiser, Beatrice Addei.
In his address, the Interim General Secretary of the organisation, Captain Effah-Dartey, stated that “Peace was a priceless commodity; the most priceless asset for economic development and prosperity that we must protect.”
To this end, he said, “We the stakeholders for Peace International have come to pursue just one objective, pursuit, promotion, and preservation of peace”.
He also explained that the country could not afford to find itself in war as being experienced in other African countries, as its effect could be disastrous and could hinder national development.
“Ask any Ghanaian, soldier or police officer who has been on United Nation Peacekeeping Mission in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo, Lebanon, and in Cambodia and he will tell you that may God, in His eternal Mercy, spare Ghana from civil strife, civil conflict and the breakdown of law and order,” Effah-Dartey added.
He noted that peace was not the absence of tension, neither was it the disagreement on the issues but rather the presence of justice, adding that, “in the absence of peace, the life of man was nasty, brutish and short”.
The Vice President of the National House of Chiefs, Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi, stated that the chiefs in the country held the peace of the country in high esteem, and would do everything possible to sustain it before, during and after the elections as that was important for national growth.
Ehunabobrim Prah Agyensem said all stakeholders must play their roles in promoting peace in the country by desisting from utterances that may ignite violence among the citizens “as the words we speak are very powerful”.
Speaking on the objective of the group, a journalist, Mr Blessed Godbrain Smart, explained that the promotion of peace should not be done only during an election year but it should be something that should be advocated every now and then.
“We need peace to work, marry, eat, and raise our children. After elections, we do not hear about that and violence exists among us as a people every year after elections,” he said.
BY BENJAMIN ARCTON–TETTEY &GLORIA NSIAH MINTAH