The National Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, has downplayed the impact of peace declarations in ensuring peace during elections in Ghana.

According to him, such declarations have not been effective in maintaining peace across the country.

“Signing a peace declaration doesn’t mean anything to the party, as previous pacts have not yielded any real results,” Asiedu Nketiah stated in an interview as reported by adomonline.com.

He said that rather than relying solely on symbolic actions, proactive efforts are needed to avert violence.

“If you allow violence to brew, it will happen whether you sign a declaration or not. That’s why, more than a year ago, I started talking about the need to remove the building blocks for a violent election,” he explained.

He criticized the emphasis on signing peace accords only after hostilities had already erupted and urged authorities to deal with the underlying issues that could lead to violence before it gets out of control.

“At any stage when something is happening, I call on those who, in the future, will call us to sign a declaration to speak up and stop it from happening.

“Otherwise, if you let these issues build up and then say, ‘Let’s play a peace football match, sign a declaration, and hope for a peaceful election,’ it won’t work. We did all this and more in 2020,” he said.

Asiedu Nketiah, affectionately known as General Mosquito, pointed out that despite the involvement of bodies like the Council of State and the National Peace Council in previous peace declarations, the 2020 election was still marred by violence.

“Signing or not signing is not the issue. What we need to address are the building blocks that lead to violence,” he insisted.

Asiedu Nketia warned that a potential source of discontent is the illegitimate hiring of an estimated 10,000 people into the security services.

“It’s brewing now,” he added.

Five people lost their lives in the 2020 general elections, according to the National Election Security Taskforce (NESTF). There were 61 documented occurrences of electoral and post-electoral violence nationwide, including six firearm incidents.

KA/EK