EDITORIAL: Thank God Arms Scare Is Over

FOR THE PAST several weeks, there has been great controversy over an alleged illegal importation of arms into the country.

The grounds for concern by ‘critics’ included the clearing of the consignment from the airport not by the regular and incumbent military top brass, but by retired military or security officials, supposedly accompanied by machomen, who then took them to a private residence.

On top of this there was contradiction at ministerial level; while a minister who ought to have known, if indeed he was on top of his portfolio, allegedly claimed ignorance, others far removed from the sector ministry knew what was going on.

That is a sure recipe for insecurity and anxiety and the Gye Nyame Concord is not surprised that the suspected errant arms became the hottest issue in town, for the price of liberty is said to be eternal vigilance.

We commend some of those who led the debate for answers on what appeared to be a dangerously cavalier handling of some of our security purchases and condemn others who push the issues too far that they nearly smacked of mischief making.

For example, what was the essence of describing those who reportedly offloaded the weapons as machomen when being macho does not preclude anyone from working with the security agencies? One key reason anyone can proffer for this description is that it was intended to suggest that the people were thugs engaged in an illegality. But was that really the case?

Another bogus argument was over the debate as to whether we should have imported the ammo from Israel, a supposed non-progressive nation. The criticism was that we were likely to attract the attention of the Arab states opposed to Israel as well as terrorists over our foreign policy.

Bunkum! This argument flies in the face of reality. If purchasing arms from China never qualified us being described as communist, how can buying arms from an Israeli company qualify us as lovers of Zionism? The argument flies even in the face of the realism that even key Arab states such as Syria, Lebanon, Libya and Egypt are now talking with Israel over their problems as well as that of the Palestinians and that we have no business or national strategic reason to lead any campaign against Israel.

In any case, our previous governments, including the immediate past government of the NDC dealt with Israel even though they were opposed to Israeli Zionist policies. The NDC regime, it was, that indeed began the intelligence collaboration inherited by the current administration. After all, even the socialism-inclined greatest Ghanaian and African leader of our time, President Kwame Nkrumah, had his regime dealing with the Israelis on several fronts despite his position on the Israeli-Arab situation. So what was really the argument here?

Luckily, the military High Command and the National Security apparatus stepped in to clarify the situation in two reports carried in the Gye Nyame Concord and the Daily Guide early last week, and we believe it is time to move on to other equally important issues like the Electoral Commission heedlessly fishing in troubled waters.

However, before we do so there are few lessons that the Gye Nyame Concord will like the government to also learn from the rather clumsy handling of this consignment of arms.

There is wisdom in nipping things in the bud. We think the response of National Security and the military hierarchy could have come much, much earlier. The Ministry of Information is mainly for run-of-the-mill social and political announcements, even though some of its leaders may not like it being put so bluntly.

When it comes to sensitive, sizzling hot news like the suspected illegal importation of arms into Ghana, the oasis of peace in war-torn West Africa, National Security has a duty to bypass that bumbling ministry and speak directly to the people.

The delay in letting the people know that the military top brass were in the know can be interpreted to mean that indeed they were ignorant about the consignment and had to be spoken to, to claim prior knowledge of it. That does not put them in a good light and everything possible should be done to avoid such perception taking seed.

Let every however thank God that we can now breathe a sigh of relief over this issue and move on even if some want to hang on to it, for the prospect conjured up by the news of the alleged rogue arms was scary, to say the least. And we pray that Ghanaians are never again afflicted with such a hypertensive dose of scare mongering coming up as a result of some clumsy handling of clearance of ammo.

We also take consolation in the explanation by the National Security capo that the arms were for legal, official and constitutionally authorised purpose.

Consequently, we think we can all move on as a nation to more pertinent issues before we begin recapping security operations of the NDC and the NPP in order to achieve cheap political points. The security of the State and safeguard of the current democratic dispensation is more important than such cheap wars over issues that touched the core of how this nation is kept safe.

As for those who still have a problem with the State or government’s right to procure ammos and the timing of the importation, they should check and find out from respectable army personnel like Brigadier Agyemfra whether arms were not imported from the People’s Liberation Army of China close to the elections in the year 2000. The issue is not the timing; it is the purpose for which the ammos came in, which in our view has been properly explained by those in charge of security. So let us let the issue rest here.