Youth Without Borders Ghana urges young people to observe peace in the post elections period and direct their energies towards pursing good governance and demanding accountability from leaders. The state of affairs where young people troop to the streets to engage in unlawful acts such as vandalism of public property does not depict young people yearning for participation in decision making.
The Executive Director of Youth Without Borders, Mr. Samuel Gariba, speaking on Akoma Fm in Kumasi said, “the problems of young people can be solved if they pursue the weightier matters of seeking to sit at the table of decision making. Young people can get to that table when we demonstrate our capacity to keep the table clean when we used it. Unfortunately, that table is not on the streets”. He urged all young people to begin to look out for government policies and programmes concerning them and strategize on how to penetrate the decision making on those policies and programmes.
Youth Without Borders has been at the forefront campaigning for peace in elections 2020. With support from West African Centre for Counter-Extremism and African Centre for Security and Counter-Terrorism, YWB rolled elections activities out radio peace campaign targeting known violence hotspots under the OneGhana National Campaign for Peaceful Elections Project on Edubiaseman radio and Akoma Fm. New Edubiase is one of the areas cited as violence hotspot in Ashanti Region which is a neighbouring district of Bekwai, where it was also anticipated to record clashes between the incumbent MP and the independent candidate. Our message focused on young people exercising their franchise through the ballots and not the gun. We urged the youth not to allow themselves to be used to foment troubles in the municipalities. We emphasized that the future belongs to them since the old folks are passing. Hence, when there is violence, no development can take place for their benefit for them to realize the future they are envisaging.
We are happy to say that, contrary to general public anticipation, the two areas recorded relatively no violence. We happy to have contributed to that.
As part of the project, YWB organized a massive peace walk in Kumasi on Saturday, 5th December. At 6:30am, scores of people gathered at the Opoku Trading, Prempeh II high street, and ready to walk for peace. Several other organisations including Eco Warriors Movement, National Youth Authority, Ashanti Regional Youth Network, Ashanti Regional Scout Association, Youth Alliance for Development, Substantial Ladies in Governance, Bekwai Youth Development Club and FOSDA Peace Ambassadors graced the occasion.
YWB also recruited and trained elections observers to conduct election observation. From early morning on 7th December, the observers reported the atmosphere in their polling stations and how the polls began. YWB will be releasing report of our observation soon.
To this end, YWB urges peaceful and respect for due process in resolving grievances from the elections. Peace…!
