Weekend Talk: ‘Peace be still’

As I sat on a bench in the public square and watched people going about peacefully minding their own businesses, I whispered a prayer of thanks to God for the peace we enjoy in this country.

I turned to a colleague and said, “Do you realise that without peace people wouldn’t be able to go about doing their work safely?” He agreed.

Then I said again, “And do you realise that if there was violence, we wouldn’t be able to attend church services as freely as we do now?” My colleague nodded in agreement.

Remembering that Ghanaians are ardent lovers of entertainment and sports, I continued, “Do you also know that if the country were in turmoil, we wouldn’t be able to patronise outdoor entertainment and sporting activities that we are so fond of?”  

Now my colleague turned to look at me and asked, “Why are you saying these things?” In response, I recounted the carefree life we relish in Ghana due to the peace we have, but which we take for granted.

Bawku conflict

Then, only a few days after my reminiscences in the public square, as if to drill holes in my peace talk, the people of Bawku opened their windows and threw out the relative peace they had. 

The old, boiling conflict associated with the beautiful land of Bawku and its environs exploded, resulting in people losing their lives. Some of those who have perished were breadwinners and they left behind widows and orphans and funerals to perform!

Fear, anxiety, confusion, hatred and revenge are the legacies bequeathed to the various communities that form the Bawku enclave.  

Until peace is restored, no longer will the people be able to go about their life easily. And, like all such conflicts, the destruction has already triggered the inevitable decline in development.

Satanic utterances

What happened? Possibly, some peace-haters have once again poked the embers and rekindled the fires.  

Such brute actions, behaviours and utterances that start such conflicts leading to human suffering and material loss are definitely satanic and must be condemned. 

In the last week or two, we have encountered various degrees of violence in our peace-loving country: a gunshot at a political rally, journalists accosted and beaten on a highway and a vicious vehicular interception at Walewale, which was a spill-over of the Bawku conflict.

It is disheartening when chieftaincy disputes, land litigation, tribal squabbles, hate speech and insults are allowed to degenerate into violence and bloodshed.

In northern Ghana, intermarriage and communal living, where our languages and homes are intertwined, make us one people. 

Even our market-day rendezvous, joint agricultural practices and socio-cultural composites put us together more than separate us.

It is especially disheartening that a land where poverty and deprivation stare the people in the face should experience conflict that only deepens the scarcity.  

Instead of combining the limited resources to alleviate poverty, people rather dissipate meagre possessions in pointless combats.

Emergency evacuation

One day, I received an urgent call from my hometown Sakogu near Nalerigu. There had been a battle among our people of different tribes.

Houses were torched and people were being molested.

In a panic, because I knew what that meant, I quickly arranged for the immediate evacuation of dozens of my people to safety in Tamale where they stayed for weeks. 

Besides the cost of this emergency evacuation, farming that year was truncated, leading to food shortage. Some development projects were abandoned since a lack of peace always means a lack of development.

The education of pupils and students was postponed and people got mentally and emotionally disoriented, coupled with suspicion as people didn’t trust their neighbours anymore.  

We heard that people began to stockpile firearms for future conflicts! The volatile situation is like incinerator fire that never quenches; the least provocation and the fires are poked into flames.

The repercussions of conflicts are so far-reaching that it is better not to start them. 

“Peace, be still!”

The physical assaults, verbal abuses and insinuations we hear from politicians tell us that we are not yet out of the woods when it comes to keeping violence at bay. 

So, when the Bawku conflict suddenly erupted, the reality dawned on me, that the peace we enjoy in this country is relative and rather fragile, like the calm before the storm. Tempers are raw while egos are bloated beyond limit. 

Therefore, all we can say is, “Peace, be still!”  

The first time these words were spoken with power and authority, people in a boat, tossed up and down in a violent storm, were about to drown. But the Lord Jesus, exercising supremacy over the storm, commanded it to be calm, saying, “Peace!  Be still!”

We may not have the power to calm storms, but, surely, God has given us the wisdom, self-control and the common sense to stay away from conflict.

The writer is a publisher, author, writer-trainer and CEO of Step Publishers.
E-mail: [email protected]