The country’s Minister of National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah, has announced that 159 terrorist and extremist attacks occurred in the Sahel and West Africa sub-region from July 1 to August 28, in a space of two months.
The attacks resulted in 538 fatalities and 127 injuries, while it displaced countless other victims.
It is significant to note that the minister disclosed this at a workshop on border security held on the theme “The Role of Civil Society Organisations [CSOs] in Ghana’s Border Security Management”.
Equally significant is that the workshop was an event under the Strengthening Border Security in Ghana Project (SBS Ghana) being implemented by the Ghana Immigration Service and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).
The project seeks, among other objectives, to work closely with CSOs, universities, research and think tanks to submit research and action projects highlighting innovative approaches and best practices on mobility and border management.
It is very difficult to comment on security matters, especially aspects that demand expert knowledge and skills, but, at least, some questions can be raised.
Why is the country doing the SBS Ghana project now, long after extremist and terrorist activities emerged in the Sahel and elsewhere in Africa?
It is on record that the colonial era and the undemocratic rule that characterised many post-independence governments generated anti-Western and jihadist movements across the Middle East and the wider Islamic world.
These movements are said to advocate conservative religious rule as a cure for modern societies’ social ills and that by the 1990s, these ideologies had begun to spread to Africa.
The record has it that certain conditions in Africa such as porous borders, poor security apparatuses, weak governance, corruption, ethnic divisions, and high youth unemployment became fertile grounds for violent extremist groups to thrive on the continent.
For instance, Boko Haram, an extremist group whose name is a Hausa expression meaning “Westernisation Is Sacrilege”, emerged in Nigeria in 2002.
Its activities and failed efforts of the Nigerian government to rein its members in are all on record.
Even if the governments of the West African sub-region did not get prompted to the fact that extremist and terrorist activities could spread to their jurisdictions, the emergence of Boko Haram and its claim of affiliation or allegiance to older group(s) outside the continent should have been enough for them to act.
That should have been the time to collaborate not only to help Nigeria ward off the insurgents but also plan collectively to address the factors like corruption and youth unemployment that provided grounds for the extremists to strike.
Workshops cannot solve the problems; it is better to stick to behind-the-scenes planning for what Ghanaian Times would like to describe as “sniper actions”.
This is not the time to announce what is being or not being done to the world.
Preparation and readiness and collaboration of the governments of West Africa and the Sahel to tame extremism and terrorism must therefore be the key preoccupation in their border security now.
And the practice of African governments always having to wait for outside sponsorship to organise even workshops like the one Mr Kan-Dapaah opened in Accra on Thursday must stop, otherwise they are likely to compromise certain security issues.
Proofed
Editorial 23
Collaborate to stop extremism, terrorism
The country’s Minister of National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah, has announced that 159 terrorist and extremist attacks occurred in the Sahel and West Africa sub-region from July 1 to August 28, in a space of two months.
The attacks resulted in 538 fatalities and 127 injuries, while it displaced countless other victims.
It is significant to note that the minister disclosed this at a workshop on border security held on the theme “The Role of Civil Society Organisations [CSOs] in Ghana’s Border Security Management”.
Equally significant is that the workshop was an event under the Strengthening Border Security in Ghana Project (SBS Ghana) being implemented by the Ghana Immigration Service and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).
The project seeks, among other objectives, to work closely with CSOs, universities, research and think tanks to submit research and action projects highlighting innovative approaches and best practices on mobility and border management.
It is very difficult to comment on security matters, especially aspects that demand expert knowledge and skills, but, at least, some questions can be raised.
Why is the country doing the SBS Ghana project now, long after extremist and terrorist activities emerged in the Sahel and elsewhere in Africa?
It is on record that the colonial era and the undemocratic rule that characterised many post-independence governments generated anti-Western and jihadist movements across the Middle East and the wider Islamic world.
These movements are said to advocate conservative religious rule as a cure for modern societies’ social ills and that by the 1990s, these ideologies had begun to spread to Africa.
The record has it that certain conditions in Africa such as porous borders, poor security apparatuses, weak governance, corruption, ethnic divisions, and high youth unemployment became fertile grounds for violent extremist groups to thrive on the continent.
For instance, Boko Haram, an extremist group whose name is a Hausa expression meaning “Westernisation Is Sacrilege”, emerged in Nigeria in 2002.
Its activities and failed efforts of the Nigerian government to rein its members in are all on record.
Even if the governments of the West African sub-region did not get prompted to the fact that extremist and terrorist activities could spread to their jurisdictions, the emergence of Boko Haram and its claim of affiliation or allegiance to older group(s) outside the continent should have been enough for them to act.
That should have been the time to collaborate not only to help Nigeria ward off the insurgents but also plan collectively to address the factors like corruption and youth unemployment that provided grounds for the extremists to strike.
Workshops cannot solve the problems; it is better to stick to behind-the-scenes planning for what Ghanaian Times would like to describe as “sniper actions”.
This is not the time to announce what is being or not being done to the world.
Preparation and readiness and collaboration of the governments of West Africa and the Sahel to tame extremism and terrorism must therefore be the key preoccupation in their border security now.
And the practice of African governments always having to wait for outside sponsorship to organise even workshops like the one Mr Kan-Dapaah opened in Accra on Thursday must stop, otherwise they are likely to compromise certain security issues.
