Youth Group to mobilise support for peace

GHANA Youth Network (GYN), a youth advocacy network of umbrella youth groups and individuals, is campaigning to mobilise the support of over 2,000 Ghanaian youth to advocate peace during and after this year’s election.
The network hopes to alert and inform the youth from all the three zones in Ghana - Northern, Middle and Southern -on the dangers of allowing themselves to be used as agents of destruction before, during and after election.
That, according to the co-ordinator of the GYN, Mr Geoffrey K. Ocansey, would reduce and possibly halt reported cases of electoral violence among the youth from the various political parties before and during the election.
He told the Daily Graphic in Accra that to carry out these objectives, the network would present its position paper on violent free election to selected ministries and agencies, traditional authorities, opinion leaders, the media and the general public.
"The campaign will adopt strategies including the formation of a youth parliament," he added, and that realising the importance of political stability in the country to Ghanaians, the African community and the entire global community, he expressed the hope that the campaign would complement the efforts the government and other stakeholders were making to sustain peace in the country.
Mr Ocansey said peace was the bedrock of every nation's development and as such it was an essential component of political stability all over the world.
"For accelerated national development or growth to be achieved in every nation, political stability is very essential and this automatically means peace plays a major role in every nation's development, " he emphasised.
Mr Ocansey said it was against that background that the youth in Ghana in their quest to maintain peace in the electioneering process had come together to promote that cause.
Ghana, he said, had a youthful population which needed to be employed to undertake positive activities to promote national development but they were often misled by selfish politicians and opinion leaders.
"One will expect to see matured politicians mentoring these young men and women to enable them to play very important roles in the democratic dispensation of our nation, but unfortunately some politicians mobilise the youth and influence them with money, food, alcohol and other incentives to distract democratic procedures," he stated.
He expressed concern that some politicians exploited the economic predicament of the youth, their ignorance and their inexperience and used them to cause mayhem.
He said electoral violence, whether caused by the youth or any other group, led to the violation of human rights and political instability, which ultimately hampered the growth of a fledging democracy.