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Mr Emmanuel Bombande, United Nations Senior Mediation Advisor has said the era of the post-COVID-19 new normal will require continuous education of the populace for them to embrace the new ways of living.

He said the new normal also begins with a policy direction that now makes it possible, to collectively provide basic human needs, to expand the economy and provide basic jobs.

Speaking with Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, Mr Bombande who is also a former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration said there was also the need to establish the spirit of cooperation between the people and those who govern them, adding that “there is nothing more powerful than that”.

“What that means is the type of active engagement in the education of the people and the self-awareness of the environment that we are entering in as a new normal.”

That, he said, would enable the people to adopt a new behaviour change that makes the new normal thing to be possible.

Mr Bombande said the need to educate the citizenry to be so self-aware of the post-COVID-19 era could not be overemphasized.

He said the citizenry should be made to understand the demand for a new behaviour so they could all embrace the new way of living the new normal.

“The Commercial Drivers’ Unions should be engaged and educated on how to educate their passengers to practice hygiene behaviour as they board the vehicles "for them not to spit out anyhow like they used to or even shouting in the vehicles.

“The populace should as well be engaged on how to adopt the new behavioural change of relating to one another and of the hygiene protocols,” he added.

As many countries find ways of easing their restrictions of the movement of people due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the government has started engaging various stakeholders on exploring ways for Ghana to ease some of its restrictions that would allow people to go back to their normal socio-economic life and activities.