A Security Expert, Dr. Adams Bonah, has intimated that the evacuation of Ghanaian students and citizens in Ukraine should not be politicized in any way.
Speaking on the current tension in Ukraine and the government’s quest to evacuate its citizens, he suggested that the interest of government should be how to move the citizens in Ukraine to safety.
The Security Analyst averred that he doesn’t understand why Deputy Majority leader, Afenyo Markin, linked the passage of the E-levy to the evacuation of Ghanaians in Ukraine. According to him, even if the law is passed today, looking at what is happening, it is almost impossible to get that amount of money immediately to be able to move Ghanaian citizens to safety.
“It’s almost like, the E-levy must be passed to bring Ghanaians or we don’t bring them. But I don’t want to believe that is the tangent Afenyo-Markin took.”
Dr. Adams Bonah
Nonetheless, he stated that if it will take the passage of E-levy to bring the Ghanaians into Ghana, so be it.
“This issue of E-levy is taking a political dimension and so it’s either you’re for it or you’re not for it.”
Dr. Adams Bonah
Foreign Ministry could’ve done better
Adams Bonah posited that the Foreign Affairs Ministry could have done better with regards to evacuating the stranded Ghanaian students in Ukraine.
“But I must say, the Ukrainians themselves did not believe this was going to happen. I am sure all over the world, a lot of people and lots of nations thought this was never going to happen. That is not to make an excuse for the leadership of this country.”
Dr. Adams Bonah
According to Adams Bonah, what has to happen is that, the diplomats will have to hoist Ghana’s flag at various points to signal to the Ghanaian nationals to all converge at a place.
“That will be another way to identify your people because at the moment, exit by air is impossible. Exit by road is near to impossibility, by sea too is impossible. The only way is to seek shelter in one of those [Ghanaian shelter] places. I do believe that by now, the Foreign Affairs Ministry would have put themselves together.”
Dr. Adams Bonah
The Security Analyst stated that if the Ghanaian authorities in Ukraine are able to gather all the citizens at one point, they can hoist a flag and signal they have no hand in the happenings and must be spared when missiles are being fired.
“The whole world is watching but we just can’t watch. We need to take some pragmatic steps to be able to identify our people and say, our people are in this studio. They can communicate with the Russian Embassy here in Ghana to relay information to its country to avoid the building with the Ghanaian flag.”
Dr. Adams Bonah
This, Adams Bonah indicated, will be another way of safe guarding the Ghanaian nationals in Ukraine. He stated that as the issue of students are being discussed, business men who are also stranded should be considered.
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