Temperate language is necessary now

Even before the country enters into the major electioneering in 2024, some political leaders, especially of the two major political parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), have increased the tempo of the political atmosphere with statements that have the tendency to motivate their followers to act in ways that will disturb the peace and stability of the country.

The Daily Graphic does not find it worthy to repeat the statements made by some political leaders because they negatively affect the peace of the country and do not augur well for our democratic dispensation.

These unpleasant comments had caused the National Peace Council (NPC) to engage the political parties on the need for politicians to be mindful of their utterances in order not to bring about instability and unnecessary tension in the country.

What is worrying is that the culprits have often explained that their utterances were mere political talk meant to encourage their followers to be vigilant during election.

With the current hung Parliament, both the NPP and the NDC have engaged in campaigns to convince the electorate to give either side the majority in Parliament come 2024.

Last Tuesday, the Police Administration met the leadership of the two major political parties to caution them against their utterances and how such negative comments could affect the stability of the nation.

We believe that the Police Administration has more to do apart from meeting the leadership of the political parties.

There have been outstanding cases prior to and during the 2020 general election in which some people lost their lives or were maimed.

The Ghana Police Service has failed to even give an update of its investigations into these cases despite requests from Ghanaians and civil society organisations.

It is about time that the police provided updates on these investigations.

The Daily Graphic also reminds all political parties, political actors including law enforcement agencies to be more responsible in the discharge of their mandate.

As rightly stated by the chairman of the NPC, Rev. Dr Ernest Adu-Gyamfi, the defence that no action was taken against a political actor for making unpleasant comments and so it is alright for another political opponent to do the same is not the best.

Such explanations by political leaders are unhelpful and that is why the police must be more proactive.

The setting up of a legal unit to analyse statements of politicians is good and the electorate should be made aware of the sanctions meted out to culprits to serve as a deterrent to others.

Furthermore, the Daily Graphic appreciates the initiative of the NPC to engage the security agencies to look at the road map to the election and also consider the roles they would be playing towards peaceful elections.

We also appeal to media houses to act responsibly by not reporting such inflammatory comments by politicians because the media cannot run away from blame when the worst happens.

It is sometimes worrying when producers or hosts of programmes allow politicians to make such provoking comments without stopping them.

Media practitioners also have a critical role to play by not allowing their platforms to be used to disturb the peace of the country.