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The Regional Election Early Warning and Response Group (REEWARG) has advised youth groups in the Northern Region to avoid the tendency of being used to foment trouble during this year’s elections. The Most Reverend Philip Naameh, Catholic Arch-Bishop of Tamale and Chairman of REEWARG, gave the advice in a speech read for him at a press briefing in Tamale.
REEWARG’s advice followed a monitoring report by the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP-Ghana) which revealed that some youth in the region had decided to engage in violence before during and after the 2016 general election.
Most Rev. Naameh stated that such youth were covertly in sports, arts and entertainment groups or clubs but also had religious and political affiliations and support that tended to increase tension among them.“They have engaged in intense competition over who is or can become more powerful than the other, especially in terms of who has a larger following it can incite to engage in violence this year.
“REEWARG is worried that with the unresolved but simmering chieftaincy and land disputes as in the other regions of the country, the vulnerability of these youth can be exploited for violence during this electioneering,” he stated. Most Rev. Naameh, therefore, advised the youth to be mindful that much as their role and interest in politics and governance was encouraged, they should ensure a peaceful environment to play those roles.
He urged the youth to ask politicians critical questions on their manifestos and plans, and question the attitudes of those with tendencies for violence. He cautioned leaders of the youth groups, saying: “Musicians, sports and entertainment leaders of the youth should know that to become more popular or make meaning out of their businesses, they have to rather become cadres of peace but not acrimony and violence.”
Most Rev. Naameh also urged the media in the region to be circumspect in their reportage so as not to be a conduit that could be used to subvert the peace of the region and the country as a whole. Father Thaddeus Kusah, Northern Regional Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council (NPC), presented a checklist for conflict sensitive reporting for journalists, urging them to avoid reporting what divided the sides in conflict.
REEWARG was formed by the NPC, United Nations Development Programme, WANEP-Ghana and the United States Agency for International Development to work to promote peace in the region before, during and after the December 7 polls.
