People can disagree fundamentally about God and still live together as brothers and sisters.

Dickson Assan

For years, we thought our biggest headache was this endless NPP/NDC nonsense.

Then we wake up to this seemingly harmless but potentially dangerous Muslim versus Christian situation.

Me, I am worried.
Worried for several reasons.
We live in a dangerous neighbourhood in West Africa. Violent Islamist extremist groups are active across parts of Burkina Faso and Mali, while Nigeria has spent years dealing with Boko Haram and ISWAP.

Ghana may have been relatively peaceful, but we are not sitting on another planet.

I have read the UNDP report about vulnerabilities to violent extremism in Northern Ghana. In fact, one of its major assessments identified youth unemployment as the most common driver of vulnerability to violent extremism and radicalisation in the five northern regions.

We have a huge youthful population.
We have almost two million young people who are not in employment, education or training.

We have thousands of frustrated young people searching desperately for jobs, income, identity, belonging and hope.

We have border communities dealing with poverty, economic hardship, displacement and instability coming from neighbouring countries. UNDP itself says these pressures increase vulnerability to violent extremism and strain social cohesion.

As a father of two, I am worried.
As a senior brother to eight other young people, I am worried.

As someone whose parents are farming in the hinterlands, relatively closer to some of our northern borders, I am even more worried.

And as someone deeply involved in youth development, I know what hopelessness can do to a young person when somebody suddenly appears and offers him money, belonging, purpose and an enemy to blame.

Please, I am not saying unemployed young people become terrorists.

Far from it.
I am saying a frustrated, disconnected and hopeless population gives extremists fertile ground to exploit, particularly when you begin adding religion, identity and grievance to the equation.

We don't have to imagine what religious extremism can become.

Nigeria is our example.
Boko Haram has abducted schoolchildren, killed Christians and Muslims, attacked communities and bombed churches. Christians have been murdered for their faith, while Muslims who reject extremist ideology have also been slaughtered.

This is why what happened at the Police Headquarters worries me deeply.

The Apostle may have said something extremely offensive. As a Christian, I don't share in that. So deal with him according to law.

The Imam may have made statements capable of inciting violence. Deal with him according to law.

But once the Police arrest somebody and put him in handcuffs, that person becomes the responsibility of the State.

He should not be subjected to some unofficial religious interrogation.

He should not be humiliated or threatened.

And certainly, nobody should appear to be administering punishment because their personal religion has been offended.

That is why I condemn the Ghana Police Service for allowing the Apostle to be humiliated on live camera inside their own building while restrained and supposedly under their protection.

That was a very poor way to handle such an explosive situation.

Religious leaders must tell their followers that provocation is unacceptable, but violence in response to provocation is equally unacceptable.

For 69 years of independence, Ghana has built this beautiful Christian and Muslim relationship.

We have lived side by side.
We have worked together.
We have attended each other's weddings and funerals.

We have eaten from the same bowls.
Our children attend the same schools.
We have Christian and Muslim members in the same extended families.

During Ramadan, Christians wish Muslims well.

During Christmas, Muslims wish Christians well.

We have shown the world that

That is a national asset. We must protect it generously, jealously and intentionally.

Because peace sometimes looks ordinary until you lose it.

Christian versus Muslim is a fire Ghana must never allow anyone to light.

Not a pastor. Not an Imam. Not a politician. Not a police officer. Nobody.

This may look like a "small" issue today.

But some small fires are only small because somebody had the wisdom to extinguish them early.