Prof. David Millar, President of the Millar Institute for Transdisciplinary and Cultural Studies has called for improved social cohesion if Ghana will succeed in warding off activities of extremists.
The revered professor is of the strong conviction that with a conscious improvement of the social setup, there is more to benefit by way of security and keeping extremists at bay.
This he believes when done successfully will make it difficult for the extremists to penetrate since they require some form of collaboration with locals.
Social cohesion involves building shared values, reducing disparities and income, and generally enabling people to have a sense that they are engaged in a common enterprise, facing shared challenges and that they are members of the same community.
It involves people in a group, like a school or a community, getting along and feeling connected to each other, functioning as the “glue” that holds everyone together and is tied to trust, shared values, and a sense of belonging.
It is on this basis that Prof. Millar argued that through improved social cohesion, communities will be much safer since all the members of a community feel they owe it a duty to their locality to take action on wrongdoings or potential risks.
He believes that social systems are better to with than even having the best security architecture.
Prof. Millar was speaking in an interview with Dreamz News on the sidelines of sensitization on violent extremism organized by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), with support from the European Union (EU) to engage students of Bolgatanga Technical University, says the youth especially girls remain a target hence his call for improved social cohesion which would help thwart their efforts.
“I am of the view that security starts with one step. It should start with you being security conscious and it should motivate you to be responsible for your own security. From the units then it comes to the family, it becomes one social cohesion point. So the family should be concerned about the family security, and so should the community or any rural setting have concerns for their own security. In order to do so, you have early warning systems that you adhere to. You should also have response strategies in the event that security is breached. But the main role is I, my family, and my village.”
He continued stating “You know, violent extremists their strategy is to mobilize the idle energy of the youth. Even where there is no idle energy, they are able to buy off their energies. Now they channel these energies into the agenda. They are the forces that can go far, they can operate the way they want so they are liable to training and retraining, and they can be indoctrinated. You can’t do that with the elderly or the aged. So they become a critical input to their strategies.”
He is also calling for the proper utilization of the energy of the youth to prevent them from channeling the same into bad acts.
