CONFLICTS DRAW US BACK (OCT 10, 2009)

FOR any country to make meaningful progress towards development, peaceful co-existence is one of the cardinal ingredients for the attainment of such a goal.
All over the world the people who have been able to transform their societies and champion development are those who promote absolute peace through adherence to the principles of the rule of law.
Therefore, the admonition by the Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Owen Woyongo, to his people, at the Town Hall meeting at Bolgatanga on Thursday, that the region could only develop in an atmosphere of peace, is indeed spot on.
The three northern regions are the most deprived in terms of social infrastructure, further worsening the disparities between that area and the southern part of our country.
But ethnic tensions and political rivalry have been fuelled to deprive the people of the benefits outlined in government policies and programmes.
Many attempts have been made to resolve these conflicts but the actions seem unable to calm the nerves and engender peaceful co-existence.
We need to remind our contemporaries of the objectives contained in the Millennium Development Goals, which mandate every country to reduce poverty by half by 2015.
Although we have made some progress in this regard, more efforts need to be put in to bridge the divide between northern Ghana and the southern part of the country.
However, such efforts can only yield fruitful results in an atmosphere devoid of communal violence among the people in the same communities.
The DAILY GRAPHIC, therefore, thinks beyond the rhetoric of peaceful co-existence among the people in conflict areas such as Bawku and other troubled spots in the country, there is the need for all to walk the talk.
Oftentimes, our people in conflict zones declare to live in peace. However, their actions and inaction more or less contribute to the escalation of violence in our communities.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes the time has come for our leaders to dissociate criminal activities from political activism in order to deal with the root cause of violence and conflicts across the country.
State institutions must also act in a more responsible manner to gain the trust of the people and also to ensure that life and property are protected.
The DAILY GRAPHIC condemns the trend that encourages people to defy authority because they are well-connected in society.
Violence in any part of the world has never proven to help any individual or country in any way. Instead, it has more than polarised societies and threatened human co-habitation and survival.
In the event of conflict, we should resolve to remain at the dialogue table until a solution is found instead of cutting heads and maiming limbs.
While some conflicts have been with us for decades, it is not an impossibility to solve this “cancer” that has eaten deep into our social fabric, provided we acknowledge that we are one people with one great destiny.
The country needs everyone’s contribution towards achieving our collective national aspirations of building a better Ghana.