Mr. Adam Bonaa a security and Safety analyst with years of experience shares with us innovative ideas, tips and strategies to protect you, your family, your children at school, Human Intelligence Operations, Civil Defense and Intelligence, Conflict Resolution and even your business, organization or agency in the event of any emergency, disaster or personal security or safety crisis.
President John Dramani Mahama on Thursday the 25th of February, delivered his fourth State of the Nation Address in his first four-year term for the dissolution of the 6th Parliament.
The State of the Nation is an annual address to Parliament given by the President of the republic of Ghana covering economic, social, and financial state of the country according to Article 67 of the constitution.
The President, in the nearly four-hour delivery, addressed many critical sectors of the economy, we want to look at what he talked about security and its implication to the ordinary Ghanaian.
Q. The President talked about the biggest retooling of the Security Agencies in recent Ghanaian History?
Ans.: The security agencies have over the years been equipped by successive leaders including the current regime but there is still more room for improvement. Modern Policing has advanced so much that the use of brute force is no longer ideal for Modern Policing, the training of our Police officers would have to be looked at again; the various training facilities for training our police officers must be properly be equipped; just a simple visit to any Police station in Ghana would tell you the actual state of Policing in the country.
This situation is not very different from the Ghana National fire service, Immigration Service, forestry, Customs Division of the GRA, Prisons Service, ETC, even though one admits there has been some significant improvement in the supply of fire tenders for the GNSF
Q. What is your take on the Increase in the current Police-Population ratio from 1:1,000 to 1:784 according to the president?
Ans.: The Increase in Police-Population ratio is very good as it’s getting close to the UN standard of 1:500 but the issue is how many police men do we see in our neighborhood?
The Financial institutions in this country have not helped the security Challenges the civil population faces everyday. They take majority of police personnel to guard their premises and guard the movement of money from one location to the other, this reduces the number of personnel available. So even though the ratio has increased the number available for public Policing is still not enough.
Q. Your view on the reduction in crime statistics by over 5,000?
Ans. It may be true that crimes have reduced but the reality is that not all crimes are reported. So the statistics on paper looks right but the reality is that most crimes in Ghana including rape, assault, road accidents etc. are not reported, most people turn to rather resolve criminals issues amicably instead of reporting to the relevant authorities. The amount of time and money spent following up on reported cases is a disincentive and the least talk about the judicial service the better in tackling crime.
Q. Has the Establishment of a marine police unit helped the country?
Ans. This was created recently and so far so good, there’s been arrest of ship and vessel jackers and I think they are doing a good job and must be commended.
Q. 15 of the 17 entry points into the country has been equipped with the installation of CCTV and a WIFI system, how will these help in controlling entry into the country?
Ans. It is a laudable initiative and I believe this would help in curbing some soft crimes but I can tell you on authority that mechanism is very wrong, this is a National Security Issue and it will be against the ethics of my profession to say it all here.
Q. The Narcotics Control Board is undergoing a restructuring process according to the president what is your take on that?
Ans. If recent arrest and sizers are anything to go by then one can say we aren’t doing bad as a country in the drug fighting drug trade. Our over reliance of foreign expertise in fight drug trade in this country and Africa is problematic in the sense that when these foreigners are engaged to do system set for fighting drugs, some of them easily give out information regarding how to crack these systems because they don’t have anything to lose.
Q. In conclusion what do you have to say?
A lot more has to be done for Security and Safety in this country, the country needs a comprehensive National Security and Safety Policy. NCCE must be tooled to do a lot more education in this area.
The leadership of the main opposition party in its own SONA failed to mention any thing security apart from the G-2 Detainees. I hope the leadership of the opposition would correct this if it were an oversight. One would have wished to hear issues regarding the Fulani issues all over the country including their stronghold Agogo and the death of JB Danquah Adu.
