Ghanaians urged to uphold justice and peace

The Justice and Peace Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, was launched in Accra yesterday, with a call on Ghanaians to ensure a working political order and economic prosperity by upholding justice and peace.

A Minister of Finance and Economic Planning in the erstwhile Kufuor administration, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, who made the call, observed that the present  socio-cultural behaviour of Ghanaians, which seems to ignore justice and laid emphasis on peace alone would not augur well for the country’s rapid socio-economic development.

Delivering the keynote address, Mr Osafo-Maafo explained that a nation which appeared to be gradually sidelining justice and emphasising peace could not experience lasting peace and economic prosperity.

The former minister said the Justice and Peace Foundation was, therefore, being inaugurated to play a strong advocacy role to prevail on institutions of state, civil society groups and all manner of people to vigorously promote justice and peace.

He said the foundation would sensitise law makers to the fact that justice was and continued to be the foundation for peace and that lasting peace flowed from justice.

He said Ghana’s founding fathers founded the nation on the motto ‘Freedom and Justice’ and understood that those principles underpinned any modern society.

However, Mr Osafo-Maafo said Ghana’s socio-cultural syndrome seemed to emphasise peace at the expense of justice.

He cited situations where justice was sacrificed in the name of peace, even at home, when individuals had wronged others.

In such situations, he said the elders were urged to sweep the injustice meted out to others under the carpet, all in the name of peace, ignoring the pain inflicted on the affected.

For instance, Mr Osafo-Maafo said on a larger scale during elections, groups of individuals and organisations became so concerned about peace and created the impression as if Ghana was on the brink of war because of elections.

He said he was becoming increasingly worried about isolating peace as the single most important thing in national life when Ghanaians ought to know that it was the absence of justice which was always a threat to peace anywhere in the world.

Mr Osafo-Maafo said most violent revolutions had occurred as a result of the absence of justice and fairness.

In Ghana, he said, tribal and chieftaincy conflicts, such as the Nkonya-Alavanyo, Kokomba-Nanumba, Mamprusi-Kusasi, Andani-Abudu and Attafuah-Frimpong-Manso were not completely resolved as a result of the emphasis on peace alone without dealing properly with the justice aspect of the conflict.

The former minister said those conflicts had not been resolved completely because some factions felt that justice had not been properly administered.

He said it was, therefore, to the credit of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that instead of taking the bait by going on the rampage, as happened in Cote d’Ivoire and Kenya, the party, after the 2012 elections, chose the constitutional pathway to conflict resolution.

He said the landmark Supreme Court ruling that would emerge would set the right precedent for the conduct of future elections, with the Electoral Commission as an impartial referee.

Mr Osafo-Maafo explained that more credible peace would be achieved when an unfair, unjust and corrupt system was challenged and tackled to instil responsibility in persons charged with conducting future elections.

“This will bring to an end disputed elections which will ultimately result in meaningful, credible and peaceful elections and it is in this vein that Nana Akufo-Addo’s court petition against the EC ought to be celebrated rather than condemned as a desperate desire for power,” he observed.

The launch, which was chaired by Professor Daniel Adzei-Bekoe, a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana and former Chairman of the Council of State, attracted some members of the NPP.

Story: Abdul Aziz