By Joyce Kantam Kolamong
Chiefs and Queen Mothers in Northern Ghana have been urged to preach peace ahead of the December polls. The call was made at a high-level convening on Peace and Security in Northern Ghana ahead of the 2024 elections, attended by chiefs from the five regions of the North.
The initiative is supported by Star-Ghana Foundation with funds from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office. It seeks to create a common platform for stakeholders to collaborate towards a peaceful electoral process and also ensure community leaders and stakeholders work together to promote peace and stability.
Northern Ghana, comprising the Northern, North East, Upper East, Upper West, and Savannah regions, faces socio-political and economic challenges that heighten vulnerability to conflict. As the 2024 elections approach, potential conflict hotspots have been identified, raising concerns about peace and security. With Ghana’s general elections just around the corner, tensions are running high as political parties wrap up their campaigns.
Some chiefs in the five regions of the North are expressing concerns about the actions and inactions of political parties. The high-level convening on Peace and Security in Northern Ghana ahead of the 2024 elections therefore seeks to empower traditional authorities, queen mothers, women groups, and civil society organizations as champions of peace and conflict resolution. The electoral commission has given firm assurance that the December polls will be peaceful if all stakeholders take keen interest in the electoral process.
According to its Northern Regional Director, Lucas Yiryel, the commission is committed to ensuring violence-free elections. This assurance, he said, is crucial, given the concerns raised by some chiefs in the northern regions.
“The electoral commission, civil society and other institutional bodies, as well as everybody, has a collective responsibility towards free, fair and peaceful election and to do this it requires, it requires collaborative effort as one institution can not do it”, he noted.
Upper East Regional Principal Programs Manager of Peace Council, David Angaamba, acknowledged the vital role chiefs and Queen Mothers play in mediating conflicts in their localities. This, according to him, highlights the importance of community leaders in promoting peace and stability during the elections.
He said, ” Chiefs and Queen Mothers are mostly seen to unifying factions not only in their jurisdiction but also the nation as large, reason for which the 1992 Constitution kicks against them taking part in partisan politics. Generally, Ghanaians have an appreciation level of trust for traditional authorities and according to 2022 Afrobarometer Trust institutions, 71 percent of Ghanaians believe that chiefs can best resolve conflict and their role is important to keep”.
Executive Director of the Star-Ghana Foundation, Ibrahim Tanko Amidu, emphasized that the regions of the North are deprived and needed peace to achieve socio-economic development. He said this underscores the need for peaceful elections to pave the way for development in the regions. He indicated that elections are a crucial means to an end, where citizens choose leaders and policies that will shape the future of their country.
“As soon as the means become more important than the end, then we are in trouble,. Elections under normal circumstances should be a peaceful process but as soon as we all become very anxious getting to elections then there is something seriously wrong”. Mr Tanko further noted, “So as we discuss to make this elections peaceful, I would say that it should be our short-term goal, our longer-term goal should be on how to make Northern Ghana peaceful and secured in other that we can take our rightful place in Ghana”.
The Paramount Chief of Sagnarigu Traditional area, Naa Ambassador Yakubu Abdulai, commended stakeholders for assuring for a Peaceful environment. He reiterated the resolve of traditional leaders in preserving peace in their communities.
With the Electoral Commission’s assurance, the role of community leaders, and the need for peace in Northern Ghana, Ghanaians can look forward to a smooth electoral process.
