...as Minister asks nation to work towards peace
WASHINGTON - Ghana was included in the National Defense Council Foundation's list of 53 countries involved in conflict in 2002 The National Defense Council Foundation (NDCF) is a non-governmental organization, non-profit think tank studying defense and foreign affairs issues that face the United States of America today.
Here is the list:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh ,Bolivia, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Colombia, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo
Others Are: East Timor, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, India, Indonesia, Israel, Ivory Coast Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyz Republic Lebanon, Liberia, Nepal, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Peru Philippines Russia Senegal Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa Spain Sudan Tunisia, Turkey Uganda, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Yemen, Zimbabwe
He said that without peace and stability, no meaningful development can be realised by any society.
Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey made the call when he opened the fifty-fourth annual New Year School on behalf of the President, Mr J. A. Kufuor, at the Great Hall of the University of Ghana in Accra yesterday.
The school, which is annually organised by the Institute of Adult Education of the University of Ghana, aims at bringing together stakeholders to deliberate on crucial national matters.The one-week school is on the theme: ?peace, stability and national development?.
Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey said that the government seriously associates itself with the annual New Year School because the school attempts to address the fundamental issues plaguing society.
He reiterated the government?s commitment to ensure that peace returns to the Dagbon State of the Northern Region, although the material cost of maintaining security is very high.
Nana Oyeeman Wereko Ampem, Chancellor of the University of Ghana, who was the chairman for the occasion, said the theme of this year's School has indeed been selected to reflect the social crisis society is experiencing.
He said that one important function of the New Year School over the years has been to make the participants take part in the governance and administration of society.
Nana Ampem, therefore, urged the participants to tailor discussions to reflect current social and economic crisis. He also urged policy makers to seriously take into consideration, the memoranda that the New Year School will come out with.
Nana Ampem said Ghanaians should not take consolation in the saying that they are a people of peace but should take a cue from the happenings in the Ivory Coast. We should pray that the lord spares them from such misfortunes.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor K. Asenso Okyere, urged the participants to actively deliberate on what would be beneficial to the society at large without any personal or political prejudice.
He announced that in the next few years, University Education will be brought to the doorstep of the adult population by turning all the out-station points of the Institute of Adult Education nation-wide into regional universities.