By Christopher Asiedu
Ghana has so far been safe from the activities of Jihadist Movements in the West African Sub-region
In Commentary, Christopher Asiedu, a journalist, writes on the lessons to be learnt from the recent flight of some Burkinabe communities to Ghana, allegedly to escape the brutalities, death and activities of terrorists in Burkina Faso.
Armed groups with jihadist ideologies and links to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Maghreb have emerged across several spots in sub-Saharan Africa, posing a threat to peace and security. These groups have wreaked havoc in the regions of the Sahel, the Lake Chad basin, the Great Lakes of Central and East Africa, Mozambique, and the Horn of Africa. In the West African Sub-region, Boko Haram, the separatist Tuareg Movements, the Islamic State in West Africa Province, ISWAP, the Ansarul Islam Group and others have caused violence, destruction and displaced thousands of people whilst others have been maimed and killed. The worrying trend is that these jihadists appear to have made some gains in the Sahel region, taking advantage of the existing volatile situation. The situation in Nigeria, Mali, Chad, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso is a great concern to the security, peace, and stability of the sub-region.
Governments within the Sub-region, ECOWAS, and the international community are worried about the spillover effects of the activities of terrorists. A number of factors have been attributed to the growing influence of jihadist groups. Poverty, corruption, local grievances, separatist movements, the growing animosity among the locals, weak state presence, inequalities and socio-economic difficulties, and lack of prospects for young people have been identified as the major contributing factors.
Perhaps, Ghana is lucky to have so far not experienced any activities of the Jihadists terrorists.
Government has rolled out a number of measures, including sensitization of the citizens by couching a simple phrase, “if you see something, say something.” The idea is to create awareness among the people to identify any possible threat of terrorism and report such threats to the security agencies. Some stakeholders, including the Ghana Journalist Association, have bought into the government’s initiative.
The leadership of GJA held a meeting with the Minister for National Security, Albert Kan Dapaah, on how best the inky fraternity can support the initiative. However, much as the government is commended for the awareness creation initiative, critics have punched holes in it, questioning how effective it would be. They have raised questions about the attitude of the ordinary Ghanaian to security and safety issues since we are not very sensitive to the security of our immediate environment and are ready to fraternise with everybody.
As someone jokingly puts it “ask a Ghanaian one question and he or she would provide you two or more answers without reflecting on the implications of what is being given out and Ghanaians are ever ready to accept strangers in their midst”.
The critics further argue that the awareness creation should go beyond the government initiative. The education should rather start from homes, schools, churches, mosques, communities, workplaces and the District Assemblies.
They advocate effective collaboration between the security agencies and positive utilization of the information provided by the public. Moreover, the Ghana Immigration Service and the relevant security agencies must be well-resourced to tackle our porous borders.
The Media must also be well-trained to handle issues of safety and security of the people whilst the citizens desist from using the opportunity provided as a platform to cause fear and panic. Most importantly, critics recommend international collaboration between the governments and security forces in the sub-region to deal with the threats of terrorism.
Last two weeks, some one thousand five hundred Burkinabe fled to the Lambussie and Sissala West Districts in the Upper West Region to allegedly escape the marauding terrorists in neighbouring Burkina Faso. Majority of them are however reported to have gone back to their home country. The reality is that Ghana does not even have the resources to cater for the refugees fleeing from other parts of the Sub-region. We must be prepared to empower the communities along our borders to report any signal likely to threaten the security of the state.
Security is a shared responsibility. Therefore, every Ghanaian must be ready to volunteer information on suspicious characters and also desist from shielding any suspected terrorists. It requires active vigilance of the security agencies, the citizens, the District Assemblies, the Executive, the Judiciary, the Legislature and other stakeholders to neutralize any threats of terrorism. Ghana should not delude itself that it is so far safe from the nefarious activities of the jihadists. Our attention must be drawn to the illegal mining areas which are believed to be the fertile grounds for the recruitment of the Jihadists. Ghanaians are known to be hospitable but this time, we must be curious about the movements and activities of our guests especially, strangers and foreigners.
We must be ready to collaborate with the security agencies to deal with the challenges of terrorism. We have a lot to learn from the neighbouring Sub-regional countries reeling under the devastation of terrorism.
Ghana has to take a second look at the growing number of unemployed youth in order to not create conditions for germinating jihadist ideas. We are not immune to potential terrorist attacks.The state must prioritize safety and security of the people and not toil with them. We could suffer irreparable damage should we fail to invest in the security of the state. The terrorists have not given up their ambition to inflict pains on the people and exert their influence in the sub-region.
Let’s make the catchphrase “if you see something, say something” meaningful and practicable but not a mere cliché. It has to be complemented.