The District Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in charge of the Talensi District of the Upper East Region, Ms Dorcas Atia, has implored stakeholders to work together to identify signals of violent extremism and respond appropriately to prevent their occurrence in Ghana.
Ms Atia made the observation when she addressed members of the Interparty Dialogue Committee (IPDC) at Tongo at the weekend, as part of efforts to prevent terrorism and violent extremism as well as electoral violence in northern Ghana.
It was sponsored by the European Union (EU) and it brought together representatives of the various political parties, traditional and religious authorities, security agencies, among other relevant stakeholders.
The District Director noted that the issues of violent extremism were grave and complex, and therefore it demanded flexibility, intelligence and openness to effectively address tension in communities and prevent its occurrence to preserve the prevailing peace and national cohesion.
She explained that the activities of terrorism and violent extremism which had become a global concern in the Sahel Regions could spill over to Ghana when collective efforts were not put in place to curb it.
The District Director, therefore, implored all stakeholders to work together to identify signals of such threats and respond appropriately to prevent their occurrence in Ghana.
“They divide communities, intensify conflicts and destabilise entire regions, so, as the threat from terrorism continues to evolve, we must adapt and learn lesson from what works and what does not work. Our responses therefore must be as vigorous and versatile as the threat,” she underscored.
The Upper East Regional Head of Programmes of NCC, Mr Joachim Elbazar, noted that Ghana was at risk of terrorism and violence as result of the activities ongoing in neighbouring countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
He stated that the youth were mostly recruited by these terrorist groups to carry out their activities and urged members of the IPDC to help educate the youth to guard themselves against being recruited to foment trouble.
Inspector at the Tongo Police Station, Mr Alex Asi, noted that unemployment, injustice, discrimination among others were factors that led to violence and expressed the need to address development issues to improve upon the condition of Ghanaians.
Mr Asi stated that the ‘winner takes all’ ideology practised in the country had the potential to create tension in the future, especially when one political party stayed in power for long and starve other parties.
The Police Officer further called for the inclusion of peaceful indigenous messages into the curriculum of schools to imbibe in the youth the cultural values which frowned on violence and activities of extremists.
FROM SAMUEL AKAPULE, TONGO
