Let’s Invest More Resources in the Security of Ghana

“We are not investing enough resources in security even though we say we are security conscious as a country”.   Dr. Kwesi Aning of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre f the (KAIPTC) stated this during a lecture organized by the Department of Forensic Sciences of the University of Cape Coast. “We need to appoint the most competent personnel to handle our security jobs and also ensuring that our security facilities are up to the scratch”.   Profiling both nationals and non- natives who live and come into the country is not currently being done as expected due the unavailability of appropriate database.  It must be a matter of priority to Ghanaians. This is because according to Dr. Aning Cyber terrorism and crime have become a matter of global concern. “Our system should be able to profile people who enter our country”.   The lecturer revealed that Ghana has become the 10th Cyber crime country in the world, explaining that due to this fact “no American company will accept any credit card from Ghana for payment of transactions”. It is for this reason that, he called for an investment in the area of Forensic Science in the country due to the fact that crime has assumed different dimensions the world over. “I ‘m convinced that managed and prosecuted well Forensic sciences can get us somewhere as a country”.   Dr. Aning bemoaned how biometric data is scattered in this country and being collected and managed by different governmental agencies. He said, even though bio data could be put together in this country, due to turf wars among these agencies, we have all of them scattered and littered around without any collaboration to put them into a composite one for all to source when the need arose.   Turning to the management of information on security in the country, he noted that there was the need to make such information very simple for all to understand rather than making them appear too complex even to the point of causing “fear and panic among the populace”.   Adding that there were various levels in the sharing of information on security in this country, but this is not adhered to, rather information that bother intelligence are even leaked into the public domain thereby causing unnecessary panic in the society.  “There are levels in the information sharing chain that could be made available. There is the need to differentiate between information on corruption that the public needs to know and those strictly on pure national security that should not be shared outside the securitocracy”.   Dr. Aning called for a change in attitude among the citizenry to become very security conscious even though they were not security personnel since it was their cardinal responsibility to ensure their personal security. “We need to develop a positive attitude to matters concerning our security as a people”.