Tribal-based campaigns are a threat to national unity – NCCE

The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has appealed to political parties and supporters to avoid tribal-based campaigns in the upcoming general elections because they are a threat to national unity.

Speaking to the Tema West NCCE director Mr. Fidel Bortey on Plann B FM’s morning show NKOSUONSEM hosted by Obidehye Kofi Sekyi, Mr. Bortey confirmed Madam Kathleen Addy’s asserted that, The NCCE has therefore encouraged all political parties and their supporters to consider themselves first as one people and as Ghanaians belonging to one nation called Ghana above all other considerations.

“The practice whereby some political actors would say because he is from this place and the other one is also from that place, holding on to encourage the people to vote on ethnic lines is by itself dangerous and a threat to national unity and interrelations among the people and could destroy the democratic credentials of the country”, the NCCE noted.

Madam Kathleen Addy, the Chairperson of the NCCE raised these concerns at the fourth series of stakeholders’ dialogues that form part of the NCCE “Preventing and Containing Violent Extremism (PCVE) Project held in Wa to examine some aspects of PCVE, especially during the upcoming elections in Ghana.

“I am the one that they should vote for or I must be considered as a natural ally because I come from where you come from and because the other one is not coming from where you come from should not be voted for; these divisional tendencies are unacceptable and not good for Ghana’s democracy and must be dealt with once and for all to sustain peace and stability for the country”, the NCCE Chairperson pointed out.

Madam Addy also raised concern about religious intolerance, which was progressing and taking shape in Ghana’s political cycles in recent years, and urged political parties to take a critical look at its emergence and nip it in the bud because identifying and voting on religious affiliations and considerations would not augur well for Ghana’s democratic dispensation.

“Let us learn to uphold and cherish lessons learned from the past that integrated us as a people to live and coexist peacefully and avoid the use of religious affiliation into our body politic to foment and perpetuate intolerance to disturb the peace of the country”, she advised.