We're at risk of a possible spillover of extremist activities to Ghana — CEO of Ideapath Consult warns

The Chief Executive Officer of Ideapath Consult Mr. Tahiru Lukman has cautioned young people to be wary of the possible spillover of Jihadist activities from neighbouring Burkina Faso to Ghana.

He made this claim in a stakeholder engagement on "Preventing Violence and Containing Extremism" organised by the Daffiama Bussie Issa District Directorate of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) to sensitize and empower youth groups.

Speaking as a resource person on efforts to prevent violent extremism and promotion of peacebuilding to foster national cohesion, the advocate and youth activist Mr. Tahiru Lukman stressed the need for young people to be more responsible and proactive in their social engagement to avoid being radicalized into becoming an extremist.

He emphasized that; “the youth, in particular, must take interest in community development and promote a high sense of tolerance; respect for each other views; religious and ethnic tolerance, as well as cooperating with the police and other security agencies and not habouring criminals; this will help us fight crimes and prevent young people from becoming radicalized.”

Mr. Tahiru Lukman opinioned that, the happenings in neighbouring Burkina Faso should be a signal to mother Ghana to be more committed to adopting a multitask approach in empowering peoples, communities, institutions and districts to build resilience to resist any form of spillover. He noted that investment in security, and retooling of security agencies should not be the only way to build resilience, equally important is adequate resourcing of government agencies such as the National Commission of Civic Education (NCCE) to empower young people to fight all forms of radicalization and extremism.

He noted further that “The Border Districts in Ghana, particularly those in the northern sector that shared borders with Burkina Faso, there is a need for development partners and government to allocate more resources to support their activities and advocacy work to building communities and young people’s resilience to extremism.”

Mr. Tahiru Lukman clarified that his remark is not to cause fear and panic, but the development in West African countries, especially the activities in Burkina Faso, which is Ghana’s next door neigbour, is increasingly worrying and "we must begin to take stock of the happenings."

He added, "Lives and properties have been lost, and there have been frequent political deadlocks giving the military interventions in terms of the overthrow of the government and the same vein fighting the Jihadists.

"It must be appreciated that the commitment of youth groups regarding this kind of programmes are an indication that the future is bright as young people are not willing to allow themselves to be used to perpetrate crimes."

He concluded by urging all youth group leadership presents to become more patriotic and put the interest of Mother Ghana first.

The programmes which were headlined by the NCCE with funding support from the European Union (EU) was described as a masterstroke as it came at a time that Ghana needs to build capacity and resilience in all spheres to contain all form of violent extremism.