Religions, traditional leaders must lead peace process towards election 2024 – Christian Council chairman
The Chairman of the Christian Council, Rt. Rev. Dr Hilliard has charged religious and traditional leaders in the country to lead the peace processes towards the 2024 general elections.
According to him, the 2024 general elections presented different dynamics compared with all previous elections and everything must been done to safeguard and deepen the atmosphere of peaceful coexistence, before, during and after the elections.
Dr Dogbe made the call at the 3rd Dialogue and Peace Conference organised by TUDEC Development Centre in collaboration with the National Peace Council, the Christian Council Office of the National Chief Imam and the Ministry of Religious and Chieftaincy Affairs in Accra yesterday.
This year’s event was on the theme: ‘Faithful Discourse: Building a peaceful world together,’ and was attended by members of the clergy, academia, political actors and other stakeholders.
Rev. Dogbe said even though religious leaders were crucial in promoting peace, it was important for religious groups to go beyond religious discussions alone.
He said the Christian Council had been mobilising Christian religious leaders to engage in peace building.
“Over the years, the Christian Council of Ghana holds a non-denominational fasting and prayer period to foster peace within the nation before, during and after the general elections,” he emphasised.
He said Ghana had by and large done well in promoting peace compared to other countries, the potential for conflict still persisted.
In a speech read on his behalf by Joseph Peter Abbey, Director, Policy Planning and Budget Monitoring at the Ministry of Chieftaincy Affairs, said with the world increasingly being polarised, it was important that Ghanaians embraced peace.
He noted that faithful discourse was essential for peace building and bringing the world together.
Rev. Dogbe said Ghana could not take its peaceful coexistence and peace achieved after election for granted and everything must be done to maintain or even improve of the existing peaceful atmosphere.
The Chairman of the National Peace Council, Rev. Dr Ernest Adu-Gyamfi called for the platform to be created for peace actors to continue to promote peace in the country.
He said interfaith and intra-faith coexistence remained very crucial to ensuring peace among both political and religious actors.
Mr Abbey said Ghanaians must commit themselves by using their words as instrument of peace and not weapons of war.
“Let us listen to each other with empathy, not judgement. Let us speak to each other with kindness, not hostility. Let us learn from each other with humility, not arrogance. Let us work with each other with solidarity, not rivalry,” he said.
He noted that as a people, we had a shared responsibility to uphold the values and principles that underpin the common humanity such as democracy, human rights, justice and rule of law.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
