Stakeholders at a forum in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region have called on the government to resource the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) to promote accelerated national development.

They said the role of the Commission in ensuring peaceful coexistence among Ghanaians and galvanizing support for implementation of national policies and programmes was critical as the country could not afford to overlook it.

The stakeholders made the call at a review meeting of the Bolgatanga Inter-Party Dialogue Committee (IPDC) organized by the NCCE.

The meeting was to review the work of the IPDC in relation to the 2020 elections and the Election Petition at the Supreme Court and other matters.

The stakeholders explained that the general peace and harmony the country was currently enjoying could be largely attributed to the role the NCCE played in educating Ghanaians on their fundamental human rights and responsibilities and the need to keep the country peaceful for national development.

Mrs Victoria Adimazoya, a Retired Educationist and member of the IPDC, said in the run up to the 2020 election, the Commission engaged various stakeholders including; youth groups and that had contributed to the peaceful election the country experienced.

She noted that the NCCE had made Ghanaians to understand that sustainable development could only happen when there was peace and respect for rule of law and noted that lack of resources sometimes hampered their ability to deliver on their mandate.

The Retired Educationist said government needed to view the Commission as a development catalyst that could rally all Ghanaians for development and adequately resource it to undertake its mandated civic education to all quarters of the country. Alhaji Abu Fuseini, the Bolgatanga Central Constituency Nasaara Coordinator of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) stated that the work of the NCCE was enormous, but it had been neglected for long.

He therefore appealed to the government to urgently resource the institution to work effectively for national unity and development.

Mr Yussif Kadir, a Member of the Regional Communication Team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), said the NCCE had contributed immensely to deepen the democratic credentials of the country and there was the need for a collective effort to resource it.

He said lack of logistics such as vehicles, prevented staff of the Commission from delivering adequately to Ghanaians.

Mr Jafaru Omar, the Municipal Director of the NCCE noted that the review meeting was to find out from stakeholders, experiences and lessons learnt from the elections and the petition to improve on them in future.

He said there was relative peace in the area before, during and after elections and all political parties had agreed to put the election behind and work for the development of the area.