Nana Yaw Osei-Darkwa, a Peace and Nonviolence activist, has called on Ghanaians to reject politicians and political groupings who engage in hate and violent speech as the country prepares to go to the polls on December 7.
Nana Osei-Darkwa, during an interview, emphasized the importance of the National Peace Pact organized by the National Peace Council in Accra on Thursday.
In response to a question regarding this initiative, he stated that violence lacks dignity and should be avoided.
He commended the National Peace Council for putting together the event and praised all the Presidential Candidates for making time of their very tight schedules to participate.
Nana Ose-Darkwa who is also the Founding President of The Green Republic Project said “Elections is all about choices and a contest of ideas and not about insults, reckless talk and lawlessness””
“Why should a simple process of choosing who to lead us become a dark cloud hovering over our heads every four years more so when we have gone through this processes for the past 32 years under the fourth republic, “he quizzed
He stressed that Peace remained Ghana’s most prized asset and not natural resources such as oil, gold, bauxite, Lithium among several others.
He opined that all the resources remain useless without peace and for the citizenry to benefit from all those resources the peace architecture must be kept intact.
He stressed that peace remained the fountain hand from which flow all other facets of National life and the earlier Ghanaians appreciated that the better.
The nonviolence expert bemoaned undemocratic tendencies that had crept unconsciously into the country’s body politics where political parties were behaving more like “political gangs”.
He urged all political stakeholders to engage in profound self-reflection to address the culture of political “gangsterism” characterized by uncritical conformity and ethical relativism, in which individuals fail to acknowledge wrongdoing or misconduct within their political parties.
“Politicians see everything wrong with their competitors and everything right of themselves. This culture has led to widespread impunity and reckless behaviour by party activists because they are certain their Parties will stand with them wrong or right,” he said.
Nana Osei-Darkwa indicated that such tendencies had the potential to destroy the peace and Ghanaians must therefore punish individuals and political groups to serve as a deterrent.
He said “as a people we are blinded by our love for political parties and not the love of country which ultimately endangers the peace.”
He called on the media to be very circumspect in their reportage and avoid sensationalism.
He indicated that if Ghanaians made the subject of peace a cardinal campaign item among other promises in determining who to vote for politicians would learn to be more circumspect in their actions and utterances.
The nonviolence activist urged the security agencies to remain neutral in the discharge of their duties to win the confidence of all actors.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE