The Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council, George Amoh, has advised the youth to be measured with the words they use when engaging in conversations in the media space especially in this election year. 

According to him, one of the very important ways to sustain peace in the country was to avoid hate speech, particularly in the media space since it has the power to negatively influence the masses in a manner that could affect the nation’s peace. 

Mr. Amoh gave the advice during a two-day awareness creation programme on hate speech, misinformation and disinformation around elections, religious tolerance and protracted conflicts, held in Dorimon in the Wa West District. 

“Words are powerful and can destroy, but at the same time can be used to build peace, however, we want our words to build peace and not to destroy, so we need to watch our words in the media space, particularly on our radio stations,” he said. 

Mr. Amoh also advised the youth to be careful of older people who may want to recruit them for violence and take reasonable steps to prevent them from destroying the future ahead of them. 

He said the youth who still dream of achieving their goals would have those wonderful dreams wasted if they allowed older people to use them to cause violence and destroy the country in which they aspire to achieve those dreams. 

Mr. Amoh appealed to the youth to respect diversity saying, “We may have differences in our choices, but we don’t need to be enemies.” 

Dr Samuel Marfo, a Professor of Conflict Resolution at the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS), urged the youth to be agents of change in society just like Dr Martin Luther King Jr. of America, Steve Biko of South Africa, and Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan. 

He said every disagreement could be resolved through dialogue and advised the youth to always choose dialogue to settle their disputes whenever they occur. 

“We can change our own destiny because we have the power to do so”, he said and advised the youth to channel their energies towards promoting peace in society. 

The Upper West Regional Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council, Clifford Tampuori, said the objective of the engagement was to expose the youth to the concept of misinformation and disinformation as a trigger to conflicts; highlight the dangers of hate speech to social cohesion, and to harness the energies of the youth as ambassadors of peace. 

He expressed gratitude to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for sponsoring the project through the UN Peacebuilding Fund, which was being implemented across three regions including Upper West, Upper East and North East Regions. 

Madam Issahaku Tambu Nafisah, a participant, said the sensitization on hate speech, misinformation, and disinformation had actually opened her eyes and that she could now appreciate what goes on in society better. 

Ms. Abudu Wakila, another participant, said she had been empowered to act as a change agent as far as peace is concerned. 

Mr. Fatawu Samwini, also a participant, said he had been emboldened to better approach issues of disagreement using dialogue and while also committing to sharing the information with his colleagues.  

Mr. Bayaw Danaa, a participant, described the programme as very important and called on the Peace Council to organize such programmes regularly while also broadening the scope of participants to enable a lot more youth to benefit.