King Carl Tornam Duho, a research Consultant at IMANI Africa says that, there are administrative and operational dimensions on security that have not been covered in the various manifesto and has expressed worry that, its absence in the manifesto means it is not going to be considered in the national strategy.
Speaking during an interview on the political parties and their security policies with regards to their various manifestos, he said that, an index that has been developed by the global development of the National organized crime, indicates that, out of the 15 West African countries, Ghana is the 10th with regards to security issues and also across the whole Africa we are 26th in position out of 54.
He noted that, the promises the political parties made has to be considered critically, because under the index, there are two main areas which are criminality score and state resilience and its seen that with criminality score, Ghana is not doing well when it comes to non-renewable resources crimes with regards to cannabis trade, criminal networks, heroin trade, cocaine trade, synthetic drug trade.
“So, these are some of the critical hotspot areas the government has to be looking at. But in general, it looks like our state operatives or our government has the capability if we are able put in the necessary resource and provide it to them to be able to do their work and address the issues.”
Speaking on the NDC’s manifesto on making sure the Police Service has greater independence and also ensure that it is free from political interference, he said that, that’s a critical issue that need to be considered because of the politicization of the whole system of the country.
He also said that, there have been a committee set to investigate and proffer some recommendations but it seems a lot of those things have not been implemented and none has been featured in these promises and that also becomes a critical concern to the nation.
He further revealed that, according to the index, there is a market for an organized crime which is institutionalized in a way and noted that, our security forces have to be more sophisticated because the approach that some of these individuals involved in these criminal activities continue to become more sophisticated and they have to match up to them.
He further expressed concerns that all these activities, that is, kidnapping, clashes and the recent activities of secessionist groups have not been addressed in the manifesto.
With regards to Security cameras to help identify perpetrators of various criminal acts, he said although the initiative by the New Patriotic Party(NPP) is good it is still not sufficient.
Touching also on the border security, he said that it is another issue of great concern to the country because the borders are porous and above that, the nation also needs to consider piracy issues due to piracy attacks at various borders.
He said what the government has done so far with regards to security is not enough and that, much has to be done.
He further stated that, national security should not be limited to the military aspect only because, security has gone beyond the military aspect and now covers environmental security issues, natural resource security issues and a lot of wider issues.
