The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in the Northern Region says it will not only seek for peace during elections but also extend its efforts to bring peace to religious and chieftaincy disputes beyond elections.
The NCCE northern regional director, Alhaji Abdul Razak Saani explained that all the problems facing Ghana are intertwined and so getting total peace would be better for the people and the nation.
Alhaji Saani was speaking at the Regional Football Association (RFA’s) launch of “Football for Peace” project in Tamale on the theme; “The role of football in sustaining peace in the November elections.”
According to him, football is a tool that can promote peace in this year’s election because it is a big enterprise that thrives everywhere one goes and its rules are followed religiously.
Alhaji Saani said the youth should stop accusing political heads of winning elections by foul means. He raised five critical issues regarding the conduct of this year’s elections.
He also cited Singapore as one of the countries that has thrived economically, through meritocracy as meritocracy is recognized in football. He therefore advised the youth to translate the meritocracy in football into their politics so as to achieve peace in the November polls.
The NCCE regional director said the commission has done everything possible, within its constraints and can understand why the country still has issues to deal with.
He noted that because the NCCE’s work involves interaction with human beings, it cannot definitely say it has completely finished the work it is doing.
Ghana, he noted, has experienced 20 years of democratic dispensation hence the need to consolidate it.
Alhaji Saani observed that the present-day generation in the country who were young in the past are now adults, adding that new generations of youth have come and have to be catered for in a different way that will benefit them.
He said if democracy had come for animals he wouldn’t have any problem because animals obey instructions from their owners. In the villages, when the animals return from the grazing, they go to their respective pens the NCCE director stated.
So, if democracy had been designed for animals, it would have been easier he said, but democracy is for the people and by the people, stressing that human beings are exploratory, very curious and want to know what the issues are.