The Minister for Information, Honorable Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has assured the general public that the President’s re-election as the Chairman of ECOWAS will not be a disruption to the domestic agenda of the country.
In an interview with the Information Minister, he posited that the President will be able to combine both roles and work diligently.
“It will not be a challenge for him to handle the ECOWAS duty in addition to his domestic duties to the country as well. We do not have any reason to believe that;moving forward his continuous handling of the ECOWAS as a board chair will be a disruption.”
Oppong Nkrumah
He disclosed that the ECOWAS Heads of States are rather very impressed at how the common challenges that is currently bedeviling the country is being tackled head on.
“They see his leadership of Ghana and ECOWAS as Ghana’s rightful place in the sub region;through his method of leading and resolving of his own country and that of the West African region’s issues.”
Oppong Nkrumah
His statement follows President Akufo-Addo’s re-appointment as the Chair of ECOWAS for a second term.
The decision was taken at the just-ended 59th Ordinary Session held on Saturday, June 19, 2021, in Accra by consensus. This comes after he was first elected to chair of the 15-member ECOWAS at its 57th Summit held in Niamey,;Niger in September 2020.
Government’s investment, resulted in ranking
Also commenting on Ghana’s ranking in the latest Global Peace Index report,;he attributed it to government’s investment in security and peace over the years.
“I think it is obvious that in recent years,;Ghana is stepping up its personnel and logistics to ensure that despite the challenges that go on in the sub-region and across Africa,;relatively we are able to offer a more peaceful environment to our citizens and people within our jurisdiction
“That is not to say that there is absolutely no incident of crime,;no incident of instability, no attack but it is about the trends… and we compare across other countries despite the accumulated challenges.”
Oppong Nkrumah
Ghana has been ranked the second most peaceful country in Africa in the 2021 Global Peace Index report by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).
Ghana came second following Mauritius who took first place with Botswana taking the third place according to the report.
On the global ranking also, Ghana took the 38th position in the world out of the 163 countries reviewed. Ghana scored 1.715 which represents a two-point move upwards from the previous Global Peace Index report.
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah further said the latest achievement by the country must motivate the citizens to play their role by contributing to maintain the relative peace and security in the country.
“What we need to do is to continue with the investment in security and peace and;ensure that all stakeholders play their part including citizens, because for peace and security to be strengthened you need a lot of citizen participation to report crime.”
Oppong Nkrumah