The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has urged political party leaders to help sustain the prevailing peace and cohesion by engaging in issue-based conversations rather than insults and name-calling.

It noted that the prevailing peace, unity and harmony could only be sustained “if political elites based their conversations on issues”.

“Political leadership need to be tolerant, patient, fair and respect each other’s fundamental human rights since they are factors to ensure peaceful co-existence and national cohesion within communities,” the Commission stressed.

Daniel Agbesi-Latsu, the Kadjebi District Director of NCCE, made the call at an Inter-Party Dialogue Committee (IPDC) meeting organised by NCCE with support from the Ministry of National Security at Kadjebi in the Oti Region.

It was aimed at reawakening dialogue among political parties and other stakeholders on collective responsibility of ensuring peaceful co-existence, inclusive participation as cornerstone of national cohesion and deepening existing collaboration between the Commission and other NCCE stakeholders for ensuring peace and security.

According to Mr Agbesi-Latsu, “if we are to have peace in the country our loyalties must transcend race, tribe, creed and class which means we must develop perspectives”.

Reverend Father Daniel Lenwah, the Headmaster of Kadjebi-Asato Senior High School, said the nation needed peace, unity, harmony and cohesion to develop and politics was about development and not conflicts.

Delivering a paper on “National Cohesion and Peaceful Co-existence as an Important Aspect of National Development’, he admonished politicians to build on issues but not personality so that together peaceful co-existence and cohesion can be sustained.

Stephen Mensah, the Jasikan District Director of NCCE, called on participants to be security conscious by reporting suspicious characters to the security agencies for action and observed that conflicts and terrorist attacks on neighbouring countries and research conducted by the Commission had informed education and sensitisation on peace and national cohesion.

Eric Fynn, the Kadjebi District Director of Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, called on Ghanaians not to discriminate based on race, gender, socioeconomic or political affiliations since the 1992 Constitution frowned on those acts.

Samuel Adjei, a representative from the Ghana Immigration Service, charged participants to help them to protect the country by reporting those who used unapproved routes and be vigilant by reporting suspicious characters to law enforcement agencies since the country was not immune to terrorist attacks.