This is not the time for Ghana to be saddled with non-performing regional ministers. Mr. President’s visions are varied and for these to be accomplished successfully his representatives in the regions, the regional ministers, must be on top of their terms of reference.
They must be ahead of occurrences before they visit their areas of jurisdictions. This is where intelligence comes in. Regional ministers must not be caught napping when it comes to occurrences which have the tendency to rock the regions.
As representatives of the President in their areas of jurisdictions, they must respond swiftly to warning signals.
Delays in taking actions have in the past led to avoidable security challenges some of them with dire consequences.
It is for this reason that we side with the Chief Of Staff Madam Akosua Frema Osei-Opare’s call on regional ministers to deal with early warning signals swiftly.
The regions have peculiar challenges which require different approaches a fact which the ministers must appreciate and act accordingly upon.
The effectiveness of regional ministers should inter alia be measured by their ability to nip crises in the bud before they explode and to reduce to the barest minimum such challenges as illegal mining where this is endemic.
The Chief Of Staff’s call comes on the heels of a heightened determination by government to clamp down on illegal mining activities on both water bodies and forests.
Regional ministers in areas rife with illegal mining activities must especially consider themselves as front liners in the fight against the illegality and therefore act as such.
With a subtle war declared against persons degrading our water bodies and forests, indolence on the part of the President’s representatives cannot be imagined, not at all.
Regional ministers including those in whose areas illegal mining activities take place took part in the recent first-of-its-kind discourse on illegal mining activities in the country.
Such ministers should be able to establish an effective mechanism for policing not only the water bodies but the forests prone to their crude exploitation by gangs of uncaring compatriots and their foreign enablers. This way important updates about how effective the new measures against illegal mining are working would be made able to the germane state agency for the necessary action.
As heads of the regional security councils the ministers have the relevant security agencies at their beck and call to gather the necessary intelligence for their attention and action. All that is required of them is the effective coordination of the agencies.
Ministers who ignore intelligence gathering and their analysis would be failing in executing their mandates.
Regions without gold and therefore no illegal mining challenges could on the other hand suffer equally critical security challenges such as chieftaincy disputes, highway robberies and land disputes occasioned by land guard activities.
The foregoing challenges require tact and intelligence to address. Illegal mining, chieftaincy disputes and sometimes clashes alongside other security drawbacks can be checked when warning signals are detected, analysed and acted upon and swiftly too.