Hajia Halima Mahama a one-time Gender Minister has told Madam Charlotte Osei, Electoral Commission (EC) Chairman that Ghanaian women want her to succeed in her position but demanded of her to be fair in the assignment bestowed upon her.
Speaking at the eighth anniversary of Gifty Anti’s Standpoint programme as a resource person, she assured the EC Chairman of the well-wishes of women. “We want to see Charlotte Osei succeed as the first woman Chairman of the EC so she should be focused, firm and fair. Ghanaians are peace-loving people”.
The EC Chairman, she continued, must work with all interest groups adding “let us support each other and be part of the electoral process”.
State institutions, she insisted, must be credible in their assignments pointing out that peace although very important can only be maintained when the right things are done.
She called on women to be on the lookout for signs of trouble and call the attention of the relevant agents for the necessary action.
Hajia Halima Mahama painted a gloomy picture of war to her audience as she recalled what she saw in Liberia where she was engaged as a consultant after the bloody conflict in that country.
Ghana, she said, is not better than Liberia where the ingredients of conflict were allowed to fester and plunge the country into a bloody war.
Women, she went on, were responsible for the eventual restoration of peace in the war-torn country adding that all should guard against those factors which could ignite war in the country.
In Liberia, she recalled visiting a village where all the women were raped during the conflict; a picture she presented to buttress her point about the need to ensure the maintenance of peace.
Peace must emanate from our institutions, she said, explaining that the National Commission For Civic Education (NCCE) should, for instance, embark upon an educational campaign for Muslim women on the importance of peace and how to sustain it.
She urged women to take interest in the issues about good governance and educate their colleagues about relevant matters bordering on their welfare.
By A.R. Gomda