The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in the Wa West District of the Upper West Region has called on political activists to exercise circumspection in their utterances during political talk shows on radio and television to avoid creating tensions in the country.

The call included the need for political activists to consider their political rivals healthy competitors and not enemies who were all seeking for the development of the country and avoid name calling and abusive language that could lead to violence.

The District Director of the commission, Mr. Nurideen Mumuni, who made the call at an Inter-party Dialogue Committee (IPDC) meeting at Wechiau on Tuesday indicated that respect and tolerance were critical in political discourse of every country.

The meeting which brought together youth and women groups, political activists, persns with disabilities, among others formed part of activities scheduled under a European Union Funded Project dubbed ‘Preventing Electoral Violence and Providing Security to the Border Regions of Ghana (NORPRESEC)’.

The Director underscored the need for political activists to be decorous on national media platforms in order not to create dissention among one another.

“When people feel disrespected by what others say, they try to retaliate by using more abusive words and this kind of discourse can fuel tension which is not really needed in the country”, he said.

He explained that peacebuilding included tolerance and involvement of everyone such that people felt significant and said there was the need to serve the interest of the various groups; marginalised, persons with disabilities as well as those perceived to be powerful in society.

Mr. Nurideen said that the aim of the commission was to use stakeholder dialogue to foil possible external attacks from violent extremists by blocking internal loopholes that could fuel such attacks.

On his part, the chairman of the Inter-Dialogue Committee, Mr. Abdulai Iddrisu defined violent extremism as an act of condoning and enacting violence with a deliberate intent to eliminate or cause injury to n opponent typically for religious or political reasons.

He encouraged participants to develop joint community strategies that would help identify and prevent early signs of extremist attacks in their respective communities and encouraged the youth to stay away from suspicious characters.

The Wechiau District Pastor of the Church of Pentecost, Pastor Alfred Assih advised Ghanaians to use proper channels to get their grievance addressed without resorting to violence.

From Lydia Darlingon Fordjour, Wechiau