We’ve glorified Violence for too long – Dr.Kwesi Aning

Security Analyst, Mr Kwesi Aning has said Ghana as a country has treated violence in a kind manner adding that, it is affecting the state in a bad way.

Testifying before the Emile Short Commission of Inquiry on Monday, Kwesi Anning said we have glorified violence for a long time in Ghana and that, the time is up for the nation to put measures in place to curb it.

“We’ve glorified violence for far too long in this country” he noted.

He told the commission that the two big political parties, NPP and the NDC has over the period created forms of vigilante groups now known as party militias due to insecurity.

“Because both parties have been in power and know what government does to the security setup, in opposition, they know what the government could do and this creates a sense of insecurity and also leads to the arming and training of these militias” – he indicated.

Legislation won’t stop vigilantism

Kwesi Anning further told the Commission that suggestions that legislation alone by the President will stop the phenomenon would not work.

“Legislation will just not end this process. It has gotten root in our society. It creates economic incentives and people use that and therefore we need a sober, long-term process in which we will create trust first, come round the table, start having the conversion and then begin a disaggregation process of the specific issue areas that we need to tackle. That takes a lot of time,” he said.