Security personnel maintaining negative peace - WANEP

The West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP-Ghana) has described the quick deployment of security agencies to conflicts zones in the Northern Regions to maintain peace when conflicts erupts as negative peace.

It said the measure is just temporary and does not find lasting solutions to the conflicts.

Mr. Justine Bayor, National Network Coordinator for WANEP-Ghana said the security agencies particularly the police and the military were only maintaining negative peace because they do not find lasting peace in such communities which results in periodic escalations and counter escalations.

He suggested that the best way of resolving the perennial conflicts in the Northern Regions was to bring together all the interest parties to brainstorm and find a lasting solution to the problems causing the conflicts.

Mr. Bayor was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Tamale on Wednesday on the sidelines of a day’s consultative meeting on youth for peacebuilding and governance workshop, which brought together inter-party dialogue members to share ideas.

The workshop, which was under the theme; “Promoting youth involvement in peace and governance”, brought participants from the Northern, Upper East, West, Ashanti and Volta Regions.

Mr. Bayor also chided the government for its lack of ability to find lasting solutions, stressing that, if those pockets of conflict were allowed to erupt periodically in a deteriorating standard of living, there was a possibility of creating a high scale civil wars in that part of the country.

He challenged the youth to see themselves as agents of development and contribute qualitatively towards the development efforts of their communities.

He observed that the youth in contemporary times have been seen as destructive agents who perpetrates and fuel conflicts in their communities, noting that, such destructive energies could be channeled positively to change society.

Mrs. Catherine Bob-Milliar, the Vice Board Chairman for the WANEP-Ghana said the youth must be mainstreamed into the development process of the country to realize their potentials through “our value systems.”

She underscored the need for the youth to exploit the development opportunities in their communities, particularly in the northern parts of the country, where most development resources were not fully exploited.