By
Isaac Arkoh, GNA
Cape Coast, Aug. 07, GNA – Reverend
Professor Emmanuel Asante, Chairman of the National Peace Council (NPC), has
stated that the Council remained unperturbed by incessant unsavoury comments
and vile political colouration of its activities.
He said the attacks were often targeted to
impugn the reputation of the Council especially the Chairman, with unfounded
political allegations aimed at creating disaffection among the populace.
He reminded the public that members of the
Council were men of high integrity and repute from their respective fields and
not puddles to be manipulated by any politician or political party.
Prof Asante made the remarks at the eighth
Annual Sandwich Conference organised by the Faculty of Social Sciences of the
University of Cape Coast (UCC).
It was on the theme: “Paving the way
for a peaceful, free and fair election 2020: The role of the state and
non-state actors”.
Giving accounts of his personal ordeals as
the Council Chair, he revealed how some politicians in the two major political
parties in Ghana had maligned him with verbal assaults and doubted his
professionalism, neutrality and integrity as a Christian leader.
He cited several instances including the
election 2012 saying “when it became clear that the New Patriotic Party
(NPP), was not going to accept the PresidentialÂ
result, the NPC quickly arranged a meeting with stakeholders and
deliberated on the issue. We finally advised the NPP to go to court and I
(Chairman) was verbally abused in the media for that decision.”
Prof Asante appealed to politicians to stop
politicising activities of the Council and allow institutional governance
structures to function effectively to give true meaning to democracy, freedom
and justice.
In so doing, he recalled the mandate of the
Council as an independent statutory national peace institution established by
Act (818) in 2011 with the core function to prevent, manage and resolve
conflict and to build sustainable peace.
Thus, any activity undertaken by the Council
must be derived from its mandate under Act 818.
That notwithstanding, the NPC Chairman
assured that the Council was working to
have a country characterised by dynamic environment where people could engage
in their lawful activities confident that the institutions, mechanisms, and
capacities for mediating differences and grievances were effective and
responsive.
It was also facilitating the development
mechanisms for cooperation among all relevant stakeholders in peace building in
Ghana by promoting problem solving and institutionalising the processes of
response to conflicts to produce outcomes that led to conflict transformation,
social, political and religious reconciliation and transformative dialogues.
Touching on other issues, he called for
collective efforts and stringent measures to nib the recent ravaging political
violence, tension and thuggery associated with elections.
He noted that the phenomenon remains a scar
on Ghana’s democratic dispensation, stifling development and derailing its
international reputation as beacon of peace.
The NPC Chairman mentioned issues such as
“winner takes all,” excessive politicisation of national issues,
security agencies, Electoral Commission,Â
illegal mining and unemployment as pitfalls to national development that
must be addressed with urgency.
For his part, Mr Kwesi Jonah, a Senior
Research Fellow at the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), who took the
audience through retrospection of Ghana’s electoral history, saluted political
parties for the democratic gains regardless of the snags in electoral laws.
“Regardless of all the imperfections
with political parties in Ghana, I wish to commend them for their good
organisational acumen and continuous improvement in systems and structures.
This has resulted in the high voters’ turnout in elections and maintained
national peace and cohesion,” he added.
GNA
