The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in collaboration with the Forestry Department will as part of this year’s Citizenship Day celebrations embark on a tree-planting exercise in all the 17 districts of the Central Region.

A total of 1,000 trees would be planted by school children, churches and traditional leaders in the various districts during the week-long celebration, from Wednesday, May 22 to Wednesday, May 29.

This was made known on Tuesday by Cletus Abang, Central Regional Director of the NCCE in an interaction with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Cape Coast.

This year’s Citizenship Day, which is under the theme, “Advancing together”, is in commemoration of twenty years of constitutional rule in Ghana since the advent of the 4th Republican Constitution. The Day would also be used to educate community members and school children on environmental protection and preservation.

Mr. Abang gave the assurance that Civic Education Clubs in schools in the region and Technical Officers from the Department of Forestry would ensure that the trees planted survive to protect the environment.

He said it was the civic responsibility of every citizen to protect the environment and desist from acts that negatively affect it, adding that “if we cannot protect our environment, then we must desist from degrading it”.

He said the Commission was committed to nurturing the Ghanaian child through civic education to be responsible, patriotic and democratically conscious in their early formative years and that the Citizenship Day would also create a platform for the children to interact with individuals, who have excelled in their various communities and field of work.

Mr. Abang said a total of 500 basic schools would benefit from this ‘mentorship programme’ with the hope of meeting over 150,000 pupils across the region, this year.

He called on Ghanaians following the petition at the Supreme Court to exercise restraint, tolerance and unity of purpose in these “trying moments of our democracy so as not to derail our peace, unity and democratic process”.

He advised Ghanaians not to allow their parochial interests to drift the country into turmoil as happened with Ghana’s neighbouring countries, but rather exude signs of peaceful co-existence and unity.