THE National Peace Council (NPC) has expressed concern over the stirring up of ethnic sentiments on issues regarding land, saying they pose a threat to national unity and cohesion.
The Deputy Chairman of the NPC, Maulvi Wahab Adam, said having been together as a unified nation for the past 52 years, it was wrong for Ghanaians to stir up ethnic sentiments and make certain areas reserved for people from particular ethnic groups.
Article 35 Clause Five of the 1992 Constitution states that “the State shall actively promote the integration of the peoples of Ghana and prohibit discrimination and prejudice on the grounds of place of origin, circumstance of birth, ethnic origin, gender or religious creed or other beliefs”.
This provision requires that we foster a spirit of “one nation” that overrides sectional, ethnic and other considerations.
In recent times, peace-loving people have been alarmed by the rate of hate speech directed at those they perceive not to belong to their political or ethnic camps.
Our first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, tried, through certain initiatives, to unify the country in order to engender peaceful co-existence.
One such major initiative was the boarding school system where students travelled from their home regions to other parts of the country to attend school.
That socialisation process helped young students to appreciate and understand the culture and beliefs of their mates, as well as help to foster cohesion among the ethnic groups in the schools.
Countries that tried to fan ethnic hatred among their people have paid the price for it by becoming failed states, struggling now to rebuild from the ashes of war.
Neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire was a very successful country until the late 1990s when the country was torn apart by ethnic divisions because sections of its society felt that others did not deserve to be part of the political process.
As if we have not learnt useful lessons from the harm done to countries that chose the path of intolerance, suddenly some groups are emerging in the country trying to take dominion over areas they deem to be their bona fide lands.
We have come out of fiercely contested elections that some felt could have led to a break up of the country. Not even the broad dissemination of hate propaganda by a section of the media during the heat of the elections could lead to the break up of the country.
After such a historic general election, it is imperative for all to put the past behind so that we can chart the course of unity.
The DAILY GRAPHIC appeals to all groups that have an axe to grind with anybody because of some perceived wrong done to it to use appropriate means to seek redress, instead of taking the law into their own hands or play the ethnic card.
We need to stay together as one great nation with a unity of purpose to rally round President Mills’s administration to move the country forward in the right direction.
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