Strive to preserve peace and stability of nation

Mr. Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, on Friday appealed to key stakeholders in building democracy in the country to help preserve the peace and stability that Ghana enjoyed in a turbulent sub-region.

“An election is a means to development and signifies the consolidation of our democracy. Let us therefore join hands as key stakeholders and play our parts to ensure a free, fair and transparent Election 2012,” he said.

“There is the need for decorum at all political and election-related discussions at the radio stations to ensure that peace prevail in the country,” Mr. Nyamekye-Marfo said.

He made the call in an address read on his behalf at the third of the series of workshops organized by the Ghana News Agency for its journalists and stringers (part-time correspondents) from Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions in Sunyani.

The workshop on the theme: “Upgrading GNA’s Human Capital for In-depth Coverage of Election 2012 and Beyond,” is being sponsored by Star-Ghana, a multi- donor pooled funding organisation funded by the British Department for International Development (DFID), the Danish Development Agency (DANIDA), European Union (EU) and US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The fund is to increase the influence of civil society and Parliament in the governance of public goods and services delivery, with the ultimate goal of improving the accountability and responsiveness of the government, traditional authorities and the private sector.

The Regional Minister challenged the Managements and Show Hosts of Radio Stations to ensure that they engaged only in credible panel members who were not only knowledgeable and experienced for debates.

Mr. Nyamekye-Marfo also suggested that, Phone-in sessions should be well moderated to ensure that, callers who were given the chance to contribute to discussions did not take undue advantage of the opportunity to incite and insult people of opposing views.

He said the Government on its part was committed to ensuring that election 2012 took place smoothly and peacefully by adequately resourcing the Electoral Commission (EC) and the security agencies to effectively perform their mandated functions before, during and after the elections.

He reiterated that Government had allocated one Million Ghana cedis as seed money to support the media fund to assist in improving the professional output and competence of media organisation in the country.

Mr. Nyamekye-Marfo urged the participants to take part in the discussions from the to be adequately prepared to discharge their mandate with accurate, reliable, fair, balanced, qualitative and comprehensive reportage which would contribute towards a successful election 2012.

Mr. Mawusi Afele, Acting GNA General Manager on behalf of the Board Chairman Mr Reginald Laryea, stressed the need for GNA to work on regaining its visibility on the Ghanaian media scene.

Mr. Laryea said the Board and Management were working out a number of initiatives which coupled with positive attitude of staff, should see the Agency through its difficulties.

In a paper presented by Mr. Afele, he said the current situation of the Agency called for re-engineering to make it relevant to the current realities in the country.

He urged reporters and stringers to explore ways of making the Agency relevant and attractive to stakeholders in their various regions and raise output.