The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has held engagement with the youth of Damongo in the West Gonja municipality of the Savannah region. The engagement was climaxed with some indoor games such as ludo and drought play. The aim of the youth engagement is to promote peace towards the upcoming elections in Ghana.
The NCCE engagement was anchored on the theme “Together We Can Build Ghana, So Get Involved”. This is in line with the key areas of focus by the NCCE for the 2024 elections in December.
Filling Point Youth group and Base One youth group got to the finals of the indoor games. Filling Point beat Base One youth group four nil (4-0) to emerge champions in the drought play.
The engagement was fruitful as participants were sensitized on key thematic areas such as money in politics, misinformation, disinformation, intemperate languages, religious tolerance, electoral violence, and the need to make the security agencies “our friends” to curb violent extremism in Ghana
Addressing participants during the program, NCCE Director for West Gonja municipality Mohammed Ibrahim encouraged the youth groups to choose leaders who are agents of development and not be influenced by money and other material gifts. He emphasized the need to choose right leaders and hold them accountable after elections to promote development in the area.
Mohammed Ibrahim also sensitized the groups against misinformation, disinformation, and intemperate language. He argued that public education on identifying and countering false or provocative information that can undermine the electoral process is important for community progress and so the people must be careful in dealing with various information received.
He said many Ghanaians these days fall prey to misinformation because they share a lot more false information unintentionally, since the sender is genuinely sharing wrong information with good intentions.
Disinformation is the sharing of false information with the intention to deceive or cause harm to another person. This is done intentionally by sharing false information to achieve a goal.
Touching on intemperate language or provocative language he appealed to the citizens to promote the habit of positive conversations and avoid provocative languages because such can lead to violent conflicts.
Religious tolerance will promote harmony and understanding among different religious groups to foster a peaceful election environment in Ghana. The freedom of worship must be maintained and accepted by all, he stressed.
Electoral Violence can lead to destruction of properties and lost of lives. He encouraged the public to peacefully participate in elections to promote development.
There was a mini float on the main Central Business Center of Damongo to create awareness to maintain peace before, during, and after the elections. Youth groups, dressmakers, beauticians, mechanical engineers, among others took part in the float.
Mohammed Ibrahim appealed to the public to make the police and other security services their friends. This will help the public call for support anytime they suspect or under attack.
Rev Samuel Dinkeri Mahama, an Executive of the municipal Inter-Party Dialogue Committee (IPDC) appealed to the youth to desist from acts that will lead to violent conflicts.
He also said the youth must remain firm and do not allow themselves to be influenced by money to choose leaders because they will find it difficult to hold the leaders accountable. And added that the youth should embrace and promote peace for sustainable development in Ghana.
Abdulai Zulkaninu
