At a time when calls for peace are loudest, mainly because of the impending Supreme Court verdict on the 2012 election petition trial, Prof. Kwesi Anin has questioned the commitment of political parties in Ghana, to peace.
According to the security expert of the Kofi Annan Peacekeeping Training Institute, there is no political party in this country that has not publicly stated their desire for peace in Ghana but never come out to publicly dissociate themselves from statements and actions of members that have the potential to cause violence.
“We talk a lot in this country…why do I say so? What we hear from all the political parties before every election is that, we want peace and therefore are committed to peace. But have you heard that any political party has expelled a member for indulging in a violent act?”
“There is no political party in this country, whose Presidential candidate, Chairman or General Secretary has threatened to force out anyone who goes against the tenets of the party. There is no historical basis to trust the political parties that they want peace,” he asserted.
Speaking in telephone interview on Adom Fm, the Security Expert called on the general public to make sure their actions and utterances contribute to peace in the country.
“We should be more interested in an action based behavior which will lead to peace” and not the “rhetoric” of it. He maintained.
He further threw a challenge to all political parties to spell the principles of the party, issue a stern warning to followers against violating the dogma it (the party) stands for and the punishment for going against the rules “if they are sincere”.
If done, in his opinion, this would go a long way to reduce violence associated with party political activities in Ghana.