Senior Citizens in the Upper West Region have been urged to educate their community members on issues of peace and also bring them on board to support the security agencies in fighting crime.
Mr Cezar Kale, Deputy Upper West Regional Minster, who made the appeal during this year's celebration of Senior Citizens Day at Wa on Thursday, said the current menace of Fulani herdsmen coupled with armed robbery threatened the relative peace enjoyed by the people in the region.
He appealed to the Senior Citizens to use their wisdom and experience on issues of peace by encouraging the formation of watch-dog committees to support the security agencies at the community level to flush out criminals.
Mr Kale used the occasion to congratulate all Senior Citizens in the country for working tirelessly to lay the foundation of the nation and ensuring steady progress and development.
"Indeed, you deserve tons of gratitude from us and we shall ever remain grateful to you for your various contributions to the development of mother Ghana", he stressed.
Mr Kale said government would continue to engage Senior Citizens in the national discourse to seek their rich ideas and contributions to policies and programmes.
He said with the rolling out of the "Block Farming" Concept, the Youth-In-Agriculture Programme, the Northern Rural Growth Project, the
revamping of the cotton and shea industry, the promotion of the local rice industry as well as the provision of subsidized fertilizer had given the Agricultural sector a tremendous boost.
Mr Kale outlined some of the good government interventions in the education sector as the free-school uniform and exercise books scheme, the expansion of the School Feeding Programme and Capitation Grant as well as the provision of more classrooms and accommodation for Senior High Schools to cater for the excess students expected this year and next year.
On the issue of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the Deputy Regional Minister said government would rectify the abuses and wastage in the implementation to enable Ghanaians to get the best out of it.
Mr Kale also called on the Senior Citizens to continue to pray for the senior national team, the Black Stars as they come against Uruguay on Friday in the quarter finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.