Entertainment of Thursday, 3 May 2012Source: Joy Online Gospel musician, Bernard Amankwah is teaming up with the country’s legislature to stage a concert dubbed, the National Peace Concert to promote peace in the country before and after the December elections.

The concert follows a 2008 edition, and will come off at the forecourt of Parliament House on July 1 under the theme: Preserving the peace for a prosperous Ghana.

The event is spearheaded by Bernard Amankwah, founder of Presence Ministry, with the support of the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship which has Mr Gershon Gbediame as its president.

Bernard Amankwah told Myjoyonline.com that the concert, which will be attended by MPs from the entire political divide, “has become imperative because now the political tension in Ghana is so high and everybody is craving for peace.”

“To get down to the people, you need to also reach out to a large number of constituencies and the constituents are always represented by a person and that person happens to be a parliamentarian so we thought it wise to partner with the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship,” the Presence singer said was the motive to involve parliament.

According to him, the MPs being a part of the concert will also make them “ambassadors of peace and wherever they go they can disseminate the message of peace since there are about 230 constituencies now… if we are able to reach out to them then you reach out to the whole Ghanaian populace.”

The highlights of the National Peace Concert will be peace messages from Archbishop Charles Palmer Buckle, Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra Archdiocese of the Catholic Church; Rev Joyce Aryee of the Salt and Light Ministries and Rev. Dr. Nii Amoo Darku, Member of the National Peace Council.

There will also be musical performances from Bernard Amankwah, Tagoe Sisters, Rev Yawson, Daughters of Glorious Jesus, Danny Nettey and a host of other renowned musical acts.

The programme will be broadcast live on some television stations.

The impact of the 2008 edition of the concert, Bernard Amankwah said, was enormous. He noted that the peace messages helped to calm nerves during the heat and aftermath of the elections.

“If you were in Ghana after the 2008 elections, you could see the fruits of the peace concerts that we did because had it not been the peace message that was preached, that fateful Tuesday that people trooped to the Electoral Commission could have been a different story altogether, but because the messages went down to the people, people thought it wise that we need to preserve the peace that we have because this is the only country that we have.”

Bernard hinted that there will be similar concerts starting in September at Kasoa in the Central region, Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo region, Kumasi in the Ashanti region and Ho in the Volta region with plans underway for the northern sector of the country.