“Around March, terrorist groups came to Ghana and recruited about 200 youth in the belt from Bole to Sawla, took them away and trained them in their terrorist agenda. Some were sent back to the villages of origin. As we do our best to do all we can to preclude any form of terrorism affecting Ghanaians, it comes back to the same thing. Let us pay attention to giving our youth hope, great hope, and to let them feel that it is only in this country that God wants them to have endless opportunities.”
The Most Rev. Philip Naameh, Archbishop of Tamale and President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference (GCBC) said this when he spoke at the launch of the Sahel Peace Initiative 2.0 in Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital.
Most Rev. Naameh warned that if young people are not given the necessary attention, they would flee the country, despite the apparent risks to other countries. The situation poses a great challenge to Ghana.
“There must be a commitment to the common good. In this respect, I would like to appeal to the Upper East Regional Minister, don’t take what belongs to everybody for a small group of people.”
“If the resources of Ghana are used to build up Ghana, it should be done such that everybody benefits, especially our youth otherwise, you create the environment for our youth to be very vulnerable to the terrorist groups.”
“If you do not create an environment in the country where our youth would always prefer to remain in Ghana rather than taking all kinds of risks to where they imagine are greener pastures, we will have the youth seeing no opportunity in the country; the only country that they have to which they belong,” he said.
The SPI is a peace project implemented by the Catholic Church with funding support from the Catholic Relief Services.
SPI 2.0 is aimed at creating awareness about threats of terrorism, promoting social cohesion through advocacy, and building the resilience of communities affected by conflicts in the sub-region.
The project would bring relevant stakeholders together to raise conflict resolution responses. The project is coordinated by the National Catholic Secretariat (NCS) and implemented by the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocesan Development Organisation (NABOCADO), a faith development organization.
