Concerted action needed to fight terrorism

Ghana is touted as an oasis of peace in the West African sub-region and even on the continent.

That is not to say that we have not had our share of ups and downs in coming thus far.

We have had a military interregnum of about 22 years of our 57 years of independence, during which the military juntas denied the people their civil rights.

However, since the people took the landmark decision to return the country to constitutional rule in January 1993, it has won international acclaim for sustaining multi-party democracy for the past 21 years.

In the West African sub-region, many of the countries are rebuilding from the ashes of war or are embroiled in internecine wars.

A school of thought has argued that the sub-region has become the focus of terrorist groups because of its wealth. It is rich in mineral resources and in recent times the Gulf of Guinea is said to contain rich oil and gas deposits.

Therefore, all kinds of interest groups are fighting for control of the sub-region in order to have hegemony over the people and control the wealth of the region.

Some of our compatriots are not too comfortable with President John Dramani Mahama’s constant reference to Boko Haram, the Islamist militant group in Nigeria that has taken over 200 schoolgirls hostage.

Frankly speaking, can our President, in his present role as Chairman of ECOWAS, remain unconcerned about developments in Nigeria, our big brother next door?

President J. E. A. Mills, confronted with a similar situation in neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire in 2010, told those calling on him to do something to mind their own business, hence the popular refrain, “Dzi wo fie asem”.

Mr Mahama, as Chairman of ECOWAS, has not got the luxury to mind his own business, as he is seen to be playing the fatherly role of mobilising all resources to defeat the ruthless Boko Haram.

We have confidence in our security personnel to rise to the occasion to ward off the threat of criminal gangs internally and during their peacekeeping operations.

The President, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, needed to boost the morale of the security agencies in the wake of the threat by Boko Haram not to destabilise only Nigeria but also the entire sub-region.

The sub-region needs peace to be able to attract the needed investment to address the development challenges in the various countries.

ECOWAS has been struggling to integrate the economies of the countries in the region in order to take advantage of the economies of scale but the results have been very insignificant.

The economies of countries in the sub-region are weak because of the lack of trade among them, as individually they are weak to negotiate deals with the powerful countries of Europe and North America.

The Daily Graphic, therefore, encourages the leaders of ECOWAS to stop the rhetoric and take the decisive action to collectively fight the Boko Haram menace and other security threats in the sub-region.