Albert Kan Dapaah – Minister of National Security
The murder of a Catholic faithful in a church in the South-Western part of Nigeria might be an occurrence outside Ghana, it nonetheless, underscores the importance of enhanced security in the West African sub-region.
It is a fact that banditry of the state of insecurity, which was confined to the Northern part of Africa’s most populous country, has not moved to the South.
There is a palpable correlation between the bloody incident and the state of insecurity in West Africa especially Togo, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and La Cote d’Ivoire.
In the past fortnight or so, we have observed the ramped awareness creation drive by the National Security Ministry.
The visit to some security outposts in the North Eastern part of the country is a step in the right direction.
Now, Ghanaians understand what it means when the sub-region in which they live is being threatened by armed extremists and bandits.
Of course, this is not the time to panic but to appreciate the level of insecurity and its reality so we can adjust accordingly.
The latest Nigerian episode, among others, which the country has witnessed, offer us adequate lessons on how to prime ourselves towards supporting our state security players.
A few days ago, some suspicious persons were seen in some parts of Garu and Bunkpurugu for which an appropriate notification was sent to the germane security agencies. That we must say is the way to go. The element of surprise should not be on the side of the armed criminals. We should always be a step aside of them which can only be when we saturate our populace with all there is to know about extremists, and what they can do and how they even operate.
Without such awareness among all especially, those living along the frontiers, we would far away from being on top of the subject.
A few years ago, this subject would have sounded unrealistic and even impervious to our people. Now the reality has dawned on us, thanks to the media and technology, occurrences in any part of the world especially, in the West African sub-region, are easily disseminated within a twinkle of the eye.
The morale of security personnel especially on frontier duties should be high, so they remain on top of the issue at stake.
Under the circumstances, coordination among the security agencies is critical. Although we have no reason to doubt the efficiency of our national security managers in this regard, we would nonetheless ask that they ramp up this factor so that our frontiers remain impenetrable to the daredevil cross-border extremists, bandits and criminals.
One lesson which the Nigerian church massacre points to is that vigilance at places of worship, marketplaces and mosques should not be taken for granted. Vigilance is key.