NCCE meets with security agencies over election

August 13, 2008
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) is holding series of meetings with the security agencies on how to maintain peace during the forthcoming general election.
The Greater Accra Regional Director of NCCE, Mrs Doris O. T. Archampong, said the NCCE and the security agencies, including the army, the police, officials of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) discussed how to provide security for the media and the populace during the elections.
She was speaking at a forum organised by her outfit to interact with media practitioners and fashion out how the NCCE and the media could collaborate to promote peace, tolerance and fairness before, during and after the elections.
Mrs Archampong said the meetings with the security agencies was crucial as they were being used to remind the military and police officers of their responsibility to provide peace to the citizenry during the elections.
She said the media were crucial to the success of the elections, and that they needed protection to be able to perform their task efficiently.
Therefore, she said, the NCCE wanted to drum home the need for the security agencies to ensure that the media practitioners were given the protection in the performance of their legitimate responsibility.
Mrs Archampong reminded the media of their responsibility during this year’s election, given the ‘massive influence’ they had on society, saying that “you could make or unmake the peace if you depart from the code of ethics, which guides your work as the conscience of society”.
“You also have the propensity to shape the consciousness of the citizenry towards the attainment of peace when you send the right messages to the people through your reportage,” she stressed.
Mrs Archampong said there had been examples in recent history, when through unguarded media reports, whole nations had fallen into serious conflicts, and mentioned the Nigerian civil war and the recent disturbances in Kenya as examples.
She, therefore, appealed to journalists to “send the right signals to the people with regard to the forthcoming general elections in order to ensure peace before, during and after the period of the election”.
Mrs Archampong expressed worry at the long queues and purported registration of minors at the recent limited voter registration exercise.
She attributed the situation to the lack of effective collaboration between the Electoral Commission (EC) and the NCCE on how to educate the public on the registration exercise.
She suggested that future registration exercises should be done with effective collaboration between the NCCE and the EC to sensitise the public to the dos and don’ts of the exercise.