Tuesday, June 19, 2012

NORGAID Calls For Peace From Northerners As 2012 Polls Nears


Mr. Mustapha Sanah, Exec. Chairman, NORGAID
If there is any battle that Northerners (residents of Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions) must expend their energies on, it should be the fight against poverty, ignorance and deprivation, and not war over lands, cultural superiority and other narrow excuses for killing one another; Executive Chairman of Northern Ghana Aid has said.

The war for superiority over one ethnic group against one another, he said should not be Northerners’ priority. “Let us rather ask why Northerners bear the brunt of the struggle for political power but are often relegated to the background when we (Northerners) succeed to help the major political powers- New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) to be elected into office?”

Speaking at a day’s workshop organized by NORGAID for communicators of political parties and editors of radio stations in Tamale, Mustapha Sanah, said it is because Northerners were not branding themselves well. “We have the highest illiteracy rate, we are too careless about opportunities given to us to help our kith and kin and go to war among ourselves too soon and too often without the right of reasons”, he observed.

According to Mr. Sanah, the irony of the situation was that people Northerners fight for to win political authority often turn their backs on them and some even called them names. “We should therefore resolve now that we are going to be important stakeholders in the election of leaders of this country in the December 7 General Elections in a peaceful, violent-free, credible and democratic manner. We should, with one voice, ask our chosen political heads to respond to our needs and demands for socio-economic development. Through this responsible use of our political strength we are serving notice to the rest of the country that we are no longer interested in being ‘the drawers of water and hewers of wood’ and it is time we set in motion the right atmosphere to bring our Kayayee sisters back home. There is dignity in working in a good and secure environment at home. Let’s create it”, he preached.

The Executive Chairman of NORGAID appealed to Northerners to replace their political zealousness and fanaticism with conscious study of the political manifestoes of the various political parties and exercise their franchise for the party that was ready to meet their development expectations. “Let us therefore turn the numerous political party pavilions and sheds, which are fertile grounds for political disputes and violence in our region, and where we readily vilify our political leaders, into a place for demanding accountable stewardship and equitable development.”

Group of Northern Chiefs
The workshop was aimed at equipping Regional Youth Organisers and Communication Team Members of NDC, NPP, Progressive People’s Party, People’s National Convention and the Convention People’s Party as well as Editors of Radio Stations in the Northern Region with good communication skills. 

It was intended to ensure that from now onwards editors and political communicators used the most appropriate or refined language to communicate to their target audiences for sustainable democracy.
The organizers were optimistic that it would impact positively on their campaigns and rallies and eliminate intemperate and vulgar language as well as negative incidents that were likely to bring violent conflicts and instability in the region. 

The workshop also, was part of the organisation’s Northern Region 2012 Multi-Party Democratic Governance Support Project, a STAR-Ghana funded project aimed at ensuring that all political parties adhere to the Political Parties Code of Conduct for 2012.

Aside training editors of radio stations and communication team members of political parties on good communication skills, the project would also send observers to monitor campaigns and rallies in 15 constituencies and submit a weekly report to a Council.

The Council would analyse the reports, critique the remarks/comments and put it in the public domain through radio and a newsletter. The critique would serve as a form of feedback to political activists on their comments/remarks from which they could draw lessons from.  

Symbols of various political parties in Ghana
Mr. Abdallah Kassim, Executive Director of Rural Media Network and a facilitator at the workshop, called on political commentators to debate their opponents on issues devoid of insults and names calling.

He also encouraged them to take critical look at local issues or problems affecting the people in the North in general and use the radio as the fastest means of communication to sell to voters what is in their party’s manifesto and how those issues would be addressed if they were voted into office. “Stop listening to what your leadership in Accra say on radio and television stations during newspaper reviews and repeat the same thing in Tamale. Be innovative, because the characteristics of the voters in Accra or Kumasi are different from those in Tamale and elsewhere”, he advised.

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