Chieftaincy, land disputes breeding grounds for violent extremism – NCCE

The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) says unresolved chieftaincy and land disputes can be breeding grounds for violent extremists to exploit to cause instability and disrupt the peace of the country.

The Commission, therefore, called on stakeholders, especially those engaged in various chieftaincy and land conflicts in the country to find lasting solution to their differences to preserve the prevailing peace for sustainable development.

Ms. Alice Ndego, the Bongo District Director of the Commission, said this when the NCCE, with funding support from the European Union, engaged about 11 youth groups in the district as part of efforts at preventing and containing violent extremism.

The engagement was part of the Commission’s awareness creation and sensitisation efforts dubbed, “Preventing and Containing Violent Extremism (PCVE) aimed at preventing and containing violent extremism through the promotion of social cohesion, peace and tolerance.

The District Director noted that neighbouring countries, especially those in the Sahel region including Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Togo had experienced activities of violent extremists in which many lives were lost, others displaced, and several properties destroyed.

She said although Ghana had not recorded any spillover of the activities of violent extremists, unresolved conflicts, especially along Ghana’s border communities, made the country vulnerable to extremists and terrorists attacks.

“The extremists look for opportunities to penetrate the country, so, if we are not careful with the disturbances in our region, they could take advantage of that because the extremists take advantage of places where there are wars.

“For instance, extremists can pass through the Bawku chieftaincy conflict and attack Ghana because they are human beings like us and it is very difficult to identify them,” she said.

Ms Ndego noted that youth were usually targeted by violent extremists to be recruited into their groups to achieve the aim of destabilising the country and called for intensified education on violent extremism among the youth.

“The youth are always the target because they are vulnerable. Most of them are jobless and if the extremists promise them jobs, they will jump onto it without asking questions because they need money, but by the time you realise they are recruited into the extremists groups,” she added.

Assistant Superintendent of Immigration, Mr Michael Billsson Awarajah, the Upper East Regional Enforcement Officer, Ghana Immigration Service, noted that Ghana had a history of peaceful coexistence and democratic governance and noted that the violent extremism in neighbouring countries threatened such feat.

He said the security services in Ghana had been working, increasing patrol and surveillance, especially along the border communities and appealed to the youth to be vigilant and support the security agencies to combat crime in their respective communities.

Mr Maxwell Banu, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of TEERE, a Non-Governmental Organisation, encouraged the youth to promote social cohesion to preserve the peace and stability in the communities.

The youth groups in a joint statement expressed their commitment to ensuring peaceful coexistence in their communities by serving as agents of peace and assisting the security agencies with relevant information to fight crime.