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The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), led by Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has said that the party would not be signing any peace declarations as the nation gets closer to the 2024 election.
He raised doubts about the value of such agreements when speaking on Joy News’ PM Express, citing prior instances.
“Signing a peace declaration doesn’t mean anything to the party, as previous pacts have not yielded any real results,” Asiedu Nketia said.
He stated that preventing violence requires proactive measures rather than symbolic gestures.
“If you allow violence to brew, it will happen whether you sign a declaration or not. That’s why, more than a year ago, I started talking about the need to remove the building blocks for a violent election,” he explained.
He further criticised the focus on signing peace agreements after tensions have already escalated, urging authorities to address the root causes of potential violence before it spirals out of control.
“At any stage when something is happening, I call on those who, in the future, will call us to sign a declaration to speak up and stop it from happening.
“Otherwise, if you let these issues build up and then say, ‘Let’s play a peace football match, sign a declaration, and hope for a peaceful election,’ it won’t work. We did all this and more in 2020,” he said.
Asiedu Nketia, also referred to as General Mosquito, made the observation that the 2020 election was still tainted by violence even if organizations such as the Council of State and the Peace Council had participated in earlier peace declarations.
“Signing or not signing is not the issue. What we need to address are the building blocks that lead to violence,” he insisted.
He also raised worries about the approximately 10,000 people who have been illegally recruited into the security forces, expressing fear that this may be a potential cause of instability in the future. “It’s brewing now,” Mr Nketia stated.
The NDC objected to the 2020 election results, calling them “flawed” and claiming that voters in their areas of support had been intimidated by state security personnel.
Five people lost their lives in the 2020 general elections, according to the National Election Security Taskforce (NESTF). There were 61 documented occurrences of electoral and post-electoral violence nationwide, including six firearm incidents.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
