Make peace number one priority - Most Rev. Osei-Bonsu
The President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC), Most Rev. Joseph Osei-Bonsu, has called on Ghanaians to make peace the number one priority as the country prepares to go to the polls on December 7.
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“We should always remember that we have only one country called Ghana and that, this country is the only home that we have,” he said in Tamale at the opening of a 10-day plenary assembly of GCBC.
The theme for the plenary assembly is: “Reconciliation with God, humanity and nature In the Year of Mercy.”
Most Rev. Osei-Bonsu said Ghanaians did not want to experience violence before, during and after the election, neither “do we want to experience post-election war.”
He appealed to Ghanaians to avoid actions and inflammatory utterances that had the potential to incite people to violence and war, asking them “to avoid tribal politics and let politicians try to win votes on the basis of the good messages that they will present rather than through vote buying.”
Reconciliation
Touching on the theme of the conference, Most Rev. Osei-Bonsu reminded the gathering that reconciliation was necessary in the country, especially in the Jubilee Year of Mercy proclaimed by the Holy Father Pope Francis.
According to him, there was also the need for reconciliation among families and citizens in order to attain forgiveness from God.
Two regions
In a welcome address, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale, Most Reverend Philip Naameh, appealed to the next government after the December 7 presidential and parliamentary election as a matter of urgency, consider creating two more regions out of the Northern Region.
According to him, that was going to ensure the equitable distribution of resources towards addressing poverty, illiteracy and other developmental challenges that were contributing to prolong conflicts in the region.
He indicated that the region was noted for having the most violent conflicts, saying, “Sustained violence and conflicts in the Northern Region have resulted in the loss of human capital, as well as the destruction of socio-economic infrastructure, including schools and clinics, significantly halting and even reversing the development process in the area.”
Most Rev. Naameh said the response of the government to conflicts in the region was very inadequate, and stressed the need for a more decisive intervention if it was to make Northern Region an area of peace.
Peace in Dagbon
The Regent of Dagbon, Kampakuya-Naa Abdulai Andani, in a speech read on his behalf, indicated that the people of Dagbon appealed to the Bishops’ conference to also pray for the entire nation as it prepared for the December election.
Kampakuya-Naa also commended the Roman Catholic Church for the enormous developmental projects it had provided to the people of Ghana and more particularly, the people of Yendi and Dagbon.
