N/R Director of National Commission for Civic Education Concerned About Level of Ignorance Among Citizens
The Northern Regional Director of National Convention for Civic Education (NCCE), Alhaji Abdul Razak Saani has expressed worry about the level of ignorance level among some Ghanaians who unfortunately only exhibit it during election period.
Alhaji Saani said the commission believes that one thing that can destabilize Ghana is ignorance and is therefore working hard to reduce ignore the level among citizens.
According to the director, many electorates still believe that, their members of parliament and assembly members are responsible for the construction of roads, schools and the provision of social amenities and that lack of knowledge about the responsibilities of their representatives is currently creating a lot of problems in many communities.
To buttress his point, he mentioned the constant whining and complaints of communities over poor roads and toilet facilities on the various airwaves largely which they attributed to the failure of MPs and assembly members instead of central government.
He was not also happy about the constant attacks on and vilification of Ghana’s Electoral Commissioner, Mrs Charlotte Osei, as a person and Ghanaians must stop seeing the woman as an embodiment of the EC.
He explained that the commissioner works with several commissioners and other civil servants, so people with an interest in the EC’s work must be abreast with the commission’s work.
On whether NCCE is well resourced to carry out its responsibilities, Alhaji Sanni said the commission is okay for now with the resources available to it, contrary to speculations it is under-resourced, for which reason they are not educating Ghanaians on their civic responsibilities.
Responding to concerns from some electorates and interest groups on issues affecting the NCCE including inadequate resources and it’s use of social media in Tamale, Alhaji Sanni explained that NCCE has its challenges like any other state agency and that no institution in the world is satisfied with its resources and will call for more and the NCCE in Ghana is not different.
The commission, he said, needs everyone to engage in getting it adequately resourced, Alhaji Saani appealed. The commission, he explained, has identified 40 districts as flash points in the country and out of the 40, six are in the Northern region.
The commission is currently engaging the people in those districts to ensure peace. The EC as an institution, he said, needs peace and stability in order to realize total peace in Ghana.
The NCCE has met with persons living with disabilities and people living with albinism. He explained that, all stakeholders have not sidelined justice in their advocacy to ensuring peace because peace encompasses justice. “Justice must be sought, Justice is part of peace and we can only seek justice when there is peace,” he stated.
The NCCE considers everyone as a client in civic education and therefore has been engaging educational institutions and various communities to ensure a peaceful election 2016.
