I love the current promotion in the press being run by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) on peaceful election process. It does not only remind me of a popular hymn but it also reminds me of my basic school days when at assembly and with some solemnity, we used to recite the Ghana Pledge with our right hand raised up, religiously. So who is standing up for beloved Ghana? For me, it is a duty call to all of us not only those in leadership positions, to stand up with the pledge to contribute our quota to a peaceful Ghana, particularly in the period we are in. Indeed, one of the most talked about topics in Ghana today and which leaves some people in fright is the need for peaceful elections in December. The consternation has been precipitated by the reports of skirmishes in some parts of the country over the last 26 days of biometric registration exercise. The trepidation is whether we would go through peaceful elections on 7th December and have the country intact. It is a genuine fear. Media reports so far on some of the violent incidence that have characterized the registration in some parts of the country have also raised anxieties about how safe and secure the day itself would be. The reports have given Ghanaians much cause to raise cries about the days before, during and after we have gone to the polls. Are we going to see peace? Is Ghana going to go through it the sixth time lucky in a continent that has seen so much political intolerance particularly in an election year and which sometimes led to election violence and even civil wars? Lately, those who have had the opportunity to mount platforms for one reason or the other continue to use such platforms to call for peace and tranquility in our country. Sunday after Sunday too, our pastors and Church elders have cautioned all of us, particularly political activists, about the need to preserve the country’s sanity. Peace is invaluable. No amount of oil or gold can buy it so if we have been lucky to have it all this while, why would we want to throw it out there to the dogs or experiment with it? Within a very short period, we have become intolerant of other people’s views and suspicious of one another. Unfortunately such postures are not helping us. They are creating a divided society based on political partisanship. History has taught us that political intolerance did not help the Liberians some years ago, the results of which they are still counting the costs, decades later. It did not help the Sierra Leoneans and neither did it benefit the Ivoirians. Rather, their countries were thrown into regrettable civil wars, precious lives were lost, families were wiped out and their societies traumatized. One would have thought that by now, the bitter lessons from our neighbours would have united us enough and seen us matured beyond the kind of acrimony that we have gradually allowed to creep into our political discourse. Regrettably, that is what might lead us into temptation and if care is not taken, might plunge us to doom. But God forbid. As if by design, 2012 is a political season for a number of countries around the world. In our sub-region, just before we ended the prior year, Liberia scraped through it successfully. Senegal has just crossed the finishing bar peacefully after great challenges. Elsewhere, France is in the throes of it and will know their fate before the week is out. Egypt is still going through the motions of elections after the Arab Spring of last year. We are scheduled to be on the heels of the United States of America as they go to the polls in November. In all these, may it not become an international headline that it was only Ghana that could not stand the peace test in 2012. Ghana deserves to pass the test a sixth time and make further history. But this would happen only if we begin to respect one another and stand up on our honour ready to do everything in our power to preserve the peace and tranquility of our nation, particularly as we face crucial elections. Standing up for Ghana would mean sacrificing for and loving our country a bit. It would mean respecting one another and tolerating dissenting views. It means agreeing to disagree and coming together as one people at the end of the day to forge ahead for one course – our motherland. Standing up for Ghana to me, would mean putting the interest of Ghana first and preserving that heritage that our fore-parents gained for us with their toil and blood. Definitely we should not watch on for the mantle we have inherited to disintegrate on our hands. We have to stand up for Ghana in order to protect what we came to meet so that we can also pass it on to the next generation. The message to stand up for Ghana is beautifully captured in the words of the Twi anthem, “Yen ara asase ni”. I have sung it over and over in my head. So precious is our land Ghana that we cannot look on unconcerned particularly at a time like this when Ghana needs all the love its 24 million nationals can give it. This is the time for all radio and television stations to continuously play “Yen ara assae ni” to unite us. We need the translation of the anthem in all the major local languages, to remind us of the charge that we all have to keep. That song has a lot of wise words for all and sundry. It does speak directly to us today than ever before. As we prepare to go for the general elections in a little less than eight months, it should be our signature tune. We will stand up for Ghana by making the rest of the registration process which is gradually inching away peaceful and orderly. We will stand up for Ghana after the registration and as we go through active political campaign season. We will stand up even taller for Ghana when we go to cast our votes and thereafter. Indeed, the time to stand up for the 6th time for Ghana is beckoning us. Yes, “yen ara assase ni”. This is our land, we have no other else. It is costly because our forebears spilled their precious blood just so that we can continue to preserve and uphold it for eternity. The call to stand up for Ghana is the duty of every Ghanaian.