Ms Josephine Nkrumah, the Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has launched a campaign dubbed: “We are One, Ghana First,” to reinforce the essence of national cohesion as a prerequisite for deepening our democracy.
She said another reason for the campaign was against the aftermath of Election 2020, which ignited and deepened polarization on political party lines and thus the need to find a way of rallying people together again.
Ms Nkrumah outdoor the, “We are one, Ghana First,” campaign which is running on the wheels of the 2021 National Annual Citizenship Week celebration at the third: “End of Month Stakeholder Engagement and Workers Appreciation Day,” seminar organized by the Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office.
The GNA-Tema project is a platform rolled-out for state and non-state actors to address national issues and also serve as a motivational mechanism to recognize the editorial contribution of reporters towards national development in general, growth and promotion of the Tema GNA as the industrial news hub.
According to Ms Nkrumah, there was a growing political and religious intolerance as well as ethnocentrism that seemed to be engulfing society as a people, saying, “if we don’t find a way to build that national cohesion, then, it puts our whole democratic journey in jeopardy.”
She also noted that on the backdrop of the recent secessionism from a group from the Volta Region, it was necessary to reinforce the view that Ghana remained a unitary republic.
She said the NCCE has targeted the youth, particularly in-school youth, therefore, the NCCE would go to schools with role models to speak to the youth to get them to understand the need for national cohesion, raise awareness of the role of the youth in nation-building and sharpen their civic skills.
Ms Nkrumah explained that the essence was to break the 1992 Constitution down and create awareness in the youth at a very early age to appreciate the importance of the constitution and the role as citizens in the country.
Explaining the Citizenship Week commemoration, the NCCE Chairperson said it was to imbibe in the youth civic skills necessary to grow up as responsible individuals and even begin to see themselves in the space of contributing to the well-being of their school, community and wherever they found themselves.
The NCCE Chairperson noted that there are mechanisms in the Constitution that allowed citizens to foster national unity such as the respect for the national emblems; “how we treat our flags, recitation of the national pledge, how solemn it is for us to sing the national anthem, what the independence square means to us, what the currency means to us and what our constitution means to us”.
Mrs Laudia Sawer, Editor, GNA Tema in a welcome address explained that the event also serves as a motivational mechanism to recognize the editorial contribution of reporters to the professional growth and promotion of Tema GNA as the industrial hub while contributing to the national development in general.
“We also use the platform to deepen the working relations with the stakeholders to ensure that both the media and the corporate world work together towards national development,” Mrs Sawer noted.
The third GNA-Tema Stakeholder Engagement and Workers Appreciation Day seminar was attended by the National Commission for Civic Education, Association of Oil Marketing Companies, Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, and the Tema Regional Police Command.