Security expert Colonel Festus Aboagye (retired)
Security expert Colonel Festus Aboagye (retired) has advised the feuding parties in the Wesley Girls Senior High School brouhaha to resort to dialogue to address their grievances.
In an interview with GhanaWeb, Colonel Festus Aboagye contended that a common ground ought to be found before it degenerates into a conflict between the two leading religious groups in the country.
He opined that the current media war will only escalate issues hence the need for the Muslim and Christian communities to refrain from addressing the issue in public.
“Those dimensions of the debate are not very helpful. We’ve all been to secondary schools and definitely not everybody that went to the school that I attended was a Christian school so how come we were able to co-exist in those days.
“The problem may be the platforms the various stakeholders are using to orchestrate their grievances. It may not be necessary for the Muslim and Christian Councils to use the media to address their issues. They should avail themselves of other channels to address them. There should be some form of dialogue”, he said.
The war of words between the Christian Council and Islamic caucus in Parliament has led to concerns of possible security implications , as the Muslim community which feels victimized could rise up against Christians.
But Colonel Festus Aboagye tells GhanaWeb that currently, there is no cause for alarm with regard to dangers to the country’s security.
He however warned that the element of violence and extremism could creep in if groups involved do not come to the table for discussions.
He cautioned against public statements which have the potential of inciting one religion against the other.
“For now, It does not create a security situation for the country but if it continues and there’s an increase and the number crosses a threshold, that is where it will begin to have national security implications. As of now, the numbers should not be a cause for alarm.
“Terrorism doesn’t happen overnight. The issues that are of concern to a certain group must have a certain critical mass so if one Muslim is prevented from fasting in a certain school, that incident is not enough to encourage other groups to resort to terrorism but if it becomes worse and gives the impression that certain minority groups are being targeted on the basis of their religion then there’s cause for concern”.
There is some stand-off between the Methodist church and the Muslim community over the refusal by the management of Wesley Girls’ Senior High School to prevent some Muslim students from fasting.
An order by the Ghana Education Service instructing the school to grant special dispensation to the students was shot down by the Methodist Church.
The Muslim caucus in Parliament have since been incensed by the issue and have promised not to allow any disintegration, whether coming from the Christian, Muslim or Buddhist communities bring issues between them. "We are one unit within a unitary state. We all subscribe to live by the Constitution of Ghana so we must respect it. Let us try to dialogue and cool the temperature in our country,”
