Let's Give Peace The Chance To Reign: The People Of Drobo And Japekrom.

It is barely 72 hours since the clashes between Drobo and Japekrom ensued but if you analyse the current situation in these two towns and the neighbouring communities, you may think that these towns have been battle grounds for decades. Now the priceless peace of these towns and the whole Jaman South has been hampered as a result of issue that could have been trashed out by the elders of these communities.

Our elders say that "when two elephants engage in a fight it is the trees and the grasses that suffer most" Our freedom has been curtailed as the result of our own doing. We are afraid to engage in normal activities as we used to do. Farmers are afraid to go to farm, shop owners cannot open their shops, market women cannot go to the market to sell, bankers cannot go to work, doctors and nurses are also not exempted, the same applies to teachers and students. The ultimate consequence is that all economic, social, political activities have been halted.

Now the question is who are beneficiaries of these problems? The answer is loud and clear without any ambiguity. So our people, are we going to engage in this act of lawlessness and subject our innocent people to perpetual suffering? For how long is this going to continue? Are we now happy to sleep at 6pm and wake up at 6am? I know the answer is certainly no but that is what we have gotten ourselves into.

One thing we must know is that no matter how long we will engage in this battle, nobody is going to win. What do you stand to achieve if at the end of the day your fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters or your children are all wiped out as the result of this misunderstanding? If all these people are killed and at the end of the day you are the only surviving member, are you a winner or a loser? Let us all think about it twice and make a decision now before the situation gets out of hands.

We should bear in mind that, any community which engages itself in conflicts is also left behind as far as development is concerned because the resources that could have been used for developmental projects would be channelled into the resolution of conflicts. Is that what we want our people of Japkekrom and Drobo?

In the past, it has been just a “mouth fight/war of words” but for people to pull guns to kill fellow beings has aggravated the situation. We are therefore, calling on the government to immediately intervene to bring lasting solution to prevent recording more casualties in the future. Again, we would like to plead with the chiefs, elders, opinion leaders and the youth especially to drop their weapons and give priceless peace the chance to reign.

Kwasi Serebour Sachie (Teacher, Nkoransah SHS) - 0246276594

Robert Oppong (Counselling Psychologist/Centre Coodinator, CoDE/UCC) - 0208044096