{"id":596069,"date":"2019-03-03T12:59:12","date_gmt":"2019-03-03T12:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"
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Former President John Mahama has promised Ghanaians that his party will work to defuse political tensions triggered by the menace of party militias.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sounding out the credentials of the NDC as a peace-loving party, the former leader who is now the 2020 flagbearer said it will attend a bi-partisan meeting over the matter in good faith and \u201cgive it everything.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The NDC flagbearer was speaking at the Perez Chapel in Accra Sunday, where the NDC leadership had gathered for a thanksgiving service following a sucessful presidential primaries last week.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: Archbishop Charles Agyinasare led the congregation to pray for the NDC leaders<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

He used the occasion to rally Ghanaians to see peace as a commodity of God\u2019s providence, urging citizens to heed to the words of one of his favourite hymns \u201cCount your blessings name them one by one.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The former President proceeded to pick out Ghana\u2019s blessings observing the country has never had a civil war as many African countries have experienced.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He drew attention to Sierra Leone where a rebel group, Revolutionary United Fighters (RUF), administered terror and forced amputations in the decade-long civil war from 1991 to 2002.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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V<\/span>ictims were asked to choose between short sleeves, meaning amputation of the arm at the shoulder, or long sleeves, amputation of the hand at the wrist.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He also praised the country\u2019s inter-ethnic peace stressing it cannot be taken for granted because Somalia a country of the same ethnic group, same language and same religion descended into a civil war since 1988 it is yet to really recover from.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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He recalled that as President, he had formed a friendship with the President of South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0with the two leaders agreeing Ghana would send teachers, nurses and doctors to Africa\u2019s youngest country grappling with social services.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe irony is that I promised to send teachers doctors and nurses…I ended up sending soldiers\u201d, he recalled as civil war tore through the country. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Former President John Mahama also picked Ghana\u2019s religious co-existence as another important blessing from God. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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He told a touching story of how Archbishop Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle jumped into an ambulance which was carrying the leader of the Ahmadiyya Mulsim Mission in Ghana Maulvi Wahab Adam w<\/span><\/span>ho had fainted as the heat during the burial service of the late President Mills became unbearable.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: Maulvi Wahab Adam died on June 22, 2014 at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

He said the Catholic leader sat in the ambulance and prayed over the Muslim leader while they were making their way to the hospital. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The former leader who was Vice-President from 2009 to July 2012 recalled attending a major gathering of Mulsim leaders inside the Catholic Social center in Navrongo in the Northern\u00a0region.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He said in other countries, the two religions would not dare cooperate in giving out its premises to the other for a religious event.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Former President John Mahama also called the non-occurrence of the Ebola virus in Ghana as another blessing noting the destruction it caused three countries between 2014 and 2016.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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He recalled visiting three leaders of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea where the outbreak of the highly-contagious virus had crippled the country\u2019s healthcare system.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

All flights to these countries had been cancelled and \u201cthe airports was like a graveyard,\u201d\u00a0John Mahama who was then ECOWAS chairman remembered his trips to these countries in 2015.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ghanaians offerred intercessory prayers asking God to spare the nation of the outbreak. Mr. Mahama said a flight from Sierra Leone which touched down in Accra and later landed in Nigeria had an Ebola patient who would later die in Nigeria.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

God, he praised, had \u201cpassed us over.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cI say this to emphasise that we must thank God for the peace we have,\u201d\u00a0he told the congregation in a speech that garnered several applause.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The former President bemoaned a national culture of cynicism and called on Ghanaians to see the glass as half full and not half empty.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He said if Ghanaians see the glass as half empty \u201cyour idea of filing the glass becomes much bigger.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The 2020 NDC flagbearer said countries develop because a generation sacrifices its comfort for another and called on Ghanaians to do same.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The former President agreed Ghana had become \u201cextremely\u201d polarised as the politics of blame-game becomes entrenched.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He said when a new leader is elected, he refers to the \u2018big mess he inherited\u2019 instead of looking out to continue the good developments.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Mahama said the country reached new levels of militia involvement in politics when politicians started training and arming them to shoot and engage in combat.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Before that \u2018macho men\u2019 were recruited by parties to protect ballot boxes on polling day were controlled by the police.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He said the police would lock them up if they caused trouble and release them after the elections and counting of the ballots was over.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But what is seen today is \u201cmilitant vigilantism\u201d, he said. Mahama has called President Nana Akufo-Addo, the father of militant vigilantism and referred to the deportation of three South Africans believed to be mercenaries invited by the then opposition New Patriotic Party.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The menace has gotten even more serious because, members of some of these party militias have been absorbed into the security services.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Mahama repeated once again, the President\u2019s call for a bi-partisan meeting over the menace was too simplistic.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It will not be \u201c[NPP National Chairman] Freddie Blay just calling [NDC National Chairman] Samuel Ofosu Ampofo and say let\u2019s meet tomorrow we can have some tea and discuss disbanding vigilantism.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. John Mahama said the party would want a multi-stakeholder approach with the National Peace Council as a moderator during the talks as detailed in a letter the party has sent to the President.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The former President said the \u201cNDC as a party will uphold the peace of this country.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can boldly assert,\u201d\u00a0he made a passionate commitment to peace.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n