The Ashanti Regional Youth Network, with support from Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA) and OXFAM in Ghana, has launched a campaign to ensure an incident-free general election in December 2020.

The project aims at educating young people to exercise their civic responsibility in the upcoming elections without allowing themselves to be agents of violence.

To this end, the youth in the Ashanti region are being encouraged to support the promotion of peace, before, during and after the 2020 polls. The campaign which is directly linked to the Sustainable Development Goal Sixteen (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) involves a series of radio discussions in multiple radio stations in the region.

Currently, weekly radio discussions on peace has commenced on Akoma FM (87.9) at 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm GMT and Edubiaseman FM (97.5) at 8:00 am to 9:00 am GMT. The network will visit other radio stations to ensure that the message of peace reaches the majority of young people in the region.

Discussion on peace includes how violence affects society, education, health, gender, community development, among others.

As part of the series of radio engagements, political parties, the NCCE, National Peace Council and similar bodies will be invited to spice up the radio discussions where experiences from them will inspire the youth to vote in peace.

The network, therefore, urges the youth to direct their energies into electing leaders who will bring the best solutions to the current socio-economic challenges facing the youth and the general Ghanaian population.

In an interview with the convenor (Ag), Samuel Gariba on Edubiaseman FM, he said these socio-economic problems do not have political strings hence they affect everyone irrespective of your political background.

He believes that some unpatriotic individuals may make attempts to recruit the youth to foment violence due to their vulnerability but called on them not fall for these traps that only satisfy the whims and caprices of those people at the expense of the country.

The network is made up of various youth in the region and their main objective is to advocate for the general wellbeing of the youth their participation in decision-making.