Be partners in peace building - Peace Council Chairman
The Chairman of the National Peace Council (NPC), Most Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Asante, has underscored the need for dialogue as the country awaits the verdict of the election petition currently being heard by the Supreme Court (SC).
Advertisement
"Peace making must be the job of each one of us," he told journalists at a news conference on the Post-Election 2012 National Peace Summit which has been scheduled for Friday, July 19.
The Post-Election 2012 National Peace Summit is a sequel to a similar one held before the election that saw political leaders committing themselves to peace regardless of the outcome of the election.
At that meeting, President John Mahama and other presidential candidates who were then contesting for the presidency made some commitments to ensure peace before, during and after the December 7, 2012 general election.
Those commitments were embodied in what became known as the Kumasi Declaration. The declaration provided the framework for civil society groups and the NPC to challenge political leaders to ensure peace after the election.
The Post-Election 2012 National Peace Summit is the response of the NPC, with the support of civil society groups and other organisations, to quelling public apprehension over a possible conflict with the verdict of the Supreme Court, expected soon.
Organisations and civil society groups supporting the effort are the National House of Chiefs, the Manhyia Palace, the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) and the Civic Forum Initiative (CFI).
The Post-Election 2012 National Peace Summit is to launch a national dialogue among Ghanaians on peace and peaceful co-existence even in the face of disagreements over the verdict of the petition.
"Jaw-jaw is better than war-war," Rev. Prof. Asante said, emphasising the heart of the message of the peace summit, which is on the theme, "Justice, Peace and Reform will strengthen Ghana".
He said if people did not make peace their business, and Ghanaians allowed the country to go up in flames, there would be nothing at all for Ghanaians to hope for.
“Be partners in building peace,” he charged all, while also charging the media to cooperate with efforts at building peace.
When Rev. Prof. Asante was asked what he made of the prophesy of the general overseer of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), which was a foreboding of imminent doom, he said, “the NPC was brought into being by the state. We were not created to respond to peoples spiritual things.
Otherwise, we would be acting out of our mandate. We are dealing with the empirical and from that we know that some Ghanaians are apprehensive about the outcome of the petition, hence the national peace summit, which is our response.
As for prophesies, there have also been some who have prophesied that there would be peace. So which one should we take?”
He admonished all, Christians, Moslems and other religious faiths, to pray, but emphasised that as a reverend minister he believed in acting with prayers.
The Executive Director of the West African Civil Society Institute (WACSI), Nana Asantewaa Afadzinu, in a statement, said the unprecedented nature of the election petition hearing called for such a peace summit.
The Chairman of the CFI, Maj. Gen. Coleman, cautioned Ghanaians against stirring up violence that would make everyone worse of.
He said his experiences as a military man in countries devastated by war were not very pleasant, adding, "If you have been in combat, you would not wish it in your country."
By Caroline Boateng/Daily Graphic/Ghana