As the West African nation marked its 63rd Independence yesterday on March 6, a Jesuit Priest based in Kenya has described Ghana as an oasis of peace, saying that “Ghana is one of the most fortunate countries in Africa and the world that enjoys stability, relative peace, high rate of economic growth and increasing prosperity.”
“Ghana’s ongoing economic miracle has been made possible by peaceful coexistence of different ethnic and religious groups and by the political stability that the country has enjoyed for several years,” he stated at the launch of a continental campaign in Accra dubbed: “Silencing the guns by 2020: I want to grow old.”
“Another major reason it makes sense to launch the campaign in Ghana is in recognition of the great statesman, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s great Pan-African vision that led to the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now called the African Union (AU)…in that regard Ghana took leadership and initiated the process of uniting Africa for peace, prosperity and well-being,” said Fr. Charles Chilufya, the Director of Jesuit Justice and Ecology Network Africa (JENA) in Kenya on Wednesday, March 4, 2920 at the Christ the King Parish, Accra.
The Jesuit Justice and Ecology Network Africa (JENA) of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar (JCAM), Lead Magis Africa, and the Ignatian Youth Networks Initiating Generational Outcomes (IYNIGO), a Christian youth group championing the agenda of peace in Ghana.
According to Fr. Chilufya, another reason for the launch in Ghana was in memory of a great son of Ghana, Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary General, “whose great work in the promotion of global peace has left memorable impact on Africa and all nations of the world.”
He stated that in April 2000 Kofi Annan issued a Millennium Report, entitled “We the Peoples: The Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century”, calling on Member States to be committed to an action plan for ending poverty and inequality, improving education, reducing HIV/AIDS, safeguarding the environment and protecting peoples from deadly conflict and violence.
This Report, he noted, later formed the basis of the Millennium Declaration adopted in 2000 and ushered in the millennium development goals (MDGs), a number of which were achieved.
“Kofi understood what Pope Paul VI taught, that if we want peace, we must work for justice and for development. Challenges that lead people to violent conflicts, including poverty, historical injustices, inequality, unemployment, climate change, illegal financial flows, and corruption should be addressed too for the guns to be silenced, he stated,” and noted that “disarming alone is not enough. There is need to find sustainable solutions to build peaceful and resilient communities.”
Kofi Annan, he said championed the global doctrine of “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) in 2005 and “the doctrine is a set of principles designed to protect civilians from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity and to provide norms to guide answers to these questions.”
Saying that he also persuaded the United Nations to establish the UN Peacebuilding Commission on December 20, 2005, Fr. Chilufya averred: “that Commission is today a reference point to a global community that is tired of dealing with conflict issues using the instrumentality of military force.”
“Since 2014, Africa has made progress in the quest for peace and security, mostly by strengthening continental response frameworks and institutions, as well as by working with the UN and other organisations on the ground,” he noted.
These initiatives, he said have borne fruit with the guns being silenced in previous hotspots such as Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone, indicating that “Significant strides have been made in protracted conflicts in Somalia and Sudan, and grassroots peace-building initiatives on the continent have also helped prevent and respond to potential conflicts.”
He pointed out that “While good progress has been made in reducing state-driven conflicts, recurring conflicts in several regions are rolling back gains already made in achieving lasting peace. Guns are still active in Libya, South Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR), the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Lake Chad Basin, which includes Chad and parts of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon.” Violent extremism in the Sahel and parts of the Horn and Eastern Africa is also a challenge., he added.
The Jesuit Cleric said “Despite the AU leaders’ resolution not to pass the burden of conflict to future generations, about 600 million young people in Africa are unemployed, uneducated or in insecure employment hence vulnerable to taking up arms.”
“For this reason, if we want to see “the Africa we Want” as we promise ourselves in the Agenda 2063, we need to take seriously the youth dividend who form over 70 percent of the African population; we need to empower young people and give them means to become responsible and capable individuals, but more importantly help them to realise their own dreams, he said, stressing that “We must be intentional and proactive about this and not merely speak about it,” he declared.
He noted that Africa is never found wanting in drafting sound policy documents, but according to him, “the nature and consequences of the crisis situations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Somalia, Sahel/Mali, South Sudan, Burundi, Guinea Bissau, Libya and the current problems in Cameroon among others suggest that Africa has a problem translating the ideas in these documents to actionable outcomes.”
“Documents of the AU like the “Agenda 2063” and “silencing the guns by 2020” cannot translate themselves into any peaceful outcomes unless African leaders have the political will, strong institutions and resources for driving the processes,” he stated.
Fr. Chilufya lamented that “there are too many conflicts in Africa to be managed and Africa lacks much of what it takes to manage these kinds of violent episodes.” He expressed worry that while new problems are being added to the list, the old conflicts are not exactly getting away but rather their scales are being expanded,” noting that “the problems in Congo that Dag Hammarskjold spent his entire tenure as the Secretary General of the UN trying to manage are still there today and indeed in an escalated dimension. Nigeria fought a civil war from 1967 to 1970.
He stated that the separatist agenda of the Biafrans that fought Nigeria at this time is still much active in the country today. Two groups drive it: The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). “Another issue is that of Dagbon crisis in Ghana, which dates back to the 1960s. The crisis is still there today. The challenge of peace building in Africa is quite daunting, JENA Director lamented.
Source: Newswatchgh.com
