The Minister for National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah has expressed concern about how chieftaincy disputes are becoming a threat to Ghana’s democracy.
According to him, chieftaincy disputes in particular remain a thorny internal security threat that must be permanently dealt with, adding that “It is interesting to note that chieftaincy disputes are a significant portion of the daily situational reports received at the Ministry of National Security”.
The Minister said this when speaking at the 2024 Civil Service Week and 2023 Awards Ceremony held at the Accra International Conference Centre over the weekend on the theme: Combating Threats to Sub-regional Peace and Security: Perspectives of the Civil Service”.
He explained that Ghana has so far managed to remain peaceful and stable despite its location in such a volatile sub-region afflicted by both terrorism and political instability.
“Internally, however, several threats that have the potential to undermine our peace and stability persist and these include land and chieftaincy disputes, a case in point is the protracted Bawku conflict, farmer-herder conflicts, electoral violence, and cybercrime” he noted.
He further stated that the potential for such chieftaincy disputes to degenerate into violent confrontations compels the country to constantly dedicate considerable amounts of resources to the mitigation of such threats—resources that could have been channelled into other productive sectors of the economy are constantly invested into maintaining peace in the various hotspots of chieftaincy disputes across the country.
“Chieftaincy remains a useful aspect of our culture and heritage. But without the adoption of non-violent and peaceful mechanisms to address differences, disputes emerging from same shall continue to threaten our peace and stability” the Minister noted
He explains that the State through its traditional security and intelligence architecture continues to implement measures to address the numerous security threats that confront the nation.
“But it has become evident in recent times that the efforts of the traditional security and intelligence agencies alone are inadequate to preserve the peace and stability of the nation due to the hybrid and unconventional nature of the security threats confronting us” Albert Kan-Dapaah noted.
He explained that it was for this reason that the National Security Strategy of Ghana, the first of its kind launched in 2021, adopted the whole-of-government and the whole-of-society approach to mitigating security threats that have the potential to undermine peace and stability.
“Within the context of the whole of government approach, all stakeholders especially the Civil Service have a critical role to play”.
“What, therefore, is the role of the Civil Service in safeguarding the peace and stability of Ghana? Human beings are indeed gregarious and we remain the only mammals that require prolonged periods of nurturing within a familial system to guarantee our survival,” he stated.
He continues “By our gregarious nature, we operate through familial systems and converge to form communities. We then extend the communal living into the formation of state systems characterised by a defined territory, a defined population and the presence of a central government led by an elected president who is entrusted with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the State”.
“Within the context of Statehood, it has become customary for an elected president to work with a body of non-elective and non-partisan officials who work behind the scenes to support the government in the enactment and implementation of policies aimed at delivering public goods and services to the citizenry- the provision of public goods and services being the primary objective of any government” the Minister underscored.
–BY Daniel Bampoe