The office of Northcode, Ghana, held a two-day seminar on participatory leadership and communication skills for residents of the Kalba area, on Thursday December 4 and Friday December 5 respectively at Bole in the Savannah Region of Ghana.
Being a seminar that aims at promoting an everlasting peace in the Kalba traditional area , it included the overlord of the Kalba area and his elders, leaders of the Brifors, Vaglas, Fulbes, as well as various religious leaders of the community.
Speaking to Yagbon Radio, Mr.Nsabi Naa Aiden,project director for Northcode, Ghana, stated that, the seminar was originally focused on how to prevent Violent Extremism, due to the closeness of the Kalba and Mandari traditional areas to the boarders of Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, but after the violence that led to lost of lives and properties at Gbiniyiri, Northcode saw how crucial it was to reconsider the agenda of the seminar to fit the current situation of the said area.
The chairperson for the seminar, Mr.Nsabi Naa Aiden, also known as the project director for Northcode, Ghana, having welcomed all and sundry, humbly called on the chief of the Kalba area to hold floor for sometime.
Commencing submission, Kalbawura Amalia, chairman of the Kalba peace committee, expressed how overwhelmed he was to have been humbly called upon to address the turnout.
He championed unity as the sole promoter of peace. According to the chief , it is important to see ourselves as one people irrespective of our ethnic or religious backgrounds, since that would simply erase the idea of seeing one another as belonging to different ethnic or religious backgrounds.
He again encouraged the turnout to make a good use of the seminar by paying heed to every input, rather than disregarding them.
Mr. Nsabi Naa Aiden, speaking after His Majesty, highlighted how determined Northcode is to support the Kalba area to ensure the full restoration of peace in the area. Various leadership models, as well as what goes into each leadership model were highlighted.
According to him, a cross-section of the leadership was invited to the seminar to review the best leadership option they can promote, keeping in mind how vulnerable the area is to several conflicts, so that their leadership can unite the people, rather than either intentionally or unintentionally promoting the current situation to a more violent one.
As the facilitator, he led the leadership in outlining some of the key factors aimed at promoting peace in the Kalba Traditional area.
The very first factor focused on officially meeting the Kalbawura and his elders after the seminar, to take a good look at how to reach out to all residents in the Kalba area, preaching peace
The second factor which aimed at promoting peace in the area was based on developmental activities. An idea under development was to get a dam, which will not only generate income, but will also let the people have a common purpose of supporting one another and figuring out different ways of making good use of the dam,rather than sitting idle and creating confusion one way or the other.
Northcode, as a way of supporting that idea, is set to reach out the government and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), to see how the need for the dam can be realized.
The third factor was to target specific locations of the Kalba community where all the representatives at the seminar in question can lead in sensitizing the people.
The use of fun games by the youth was again identified as one of the ways of promoting peace in the Kalba area, a brilliant idea of featuring peace talks during those games, which at the end of the day will encourage the youth of the Kalba area to uphold oneness in high esteem.
Also, different types of information sharing, such as the normal, misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation, were reviewed, with a great deal of submission on malinformation given by the secretary to the overlord of the Kalba area, also known as the secretary of the peace committee and vice chairman of the Lobi/Brifor council of elders, Mr.John Chaatey Darison.
Holding floor after Mr.John Chaatey was Mr.Mahama Adamu, secretary to the overlord of the Kong traditional area and president of the youth group in the area, highlighted, that, strong leadership and fair roles will promote peaceful co-existence in every society. However, more emphasis were laid on not just a strong leadership, but one that champions truth in running all its affairs.
Just before the official closing remarks, several contributions and suggestions were finally acknowledged, after which the project director for Northcode, Ghana, Mr.Nsabi Naa Aiden, encouraged all and sundry to embrace peace instead of asking a question like “who eats nor wears peace”. This is because, “peace is built on development”, he said.
Source:Seidu Salima.
