Expert cautions about security situation

Accra, Aug. 11, GNA - Dr. Emmanuel Kwesi Annin, a security expert, on Monday cautioned that the country's security was sliding and could explode with the slightest action.

He noted: "Pockets of violence and militarism experienced during the primaries of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the on-going limited voter registration exercise have the tendency of jeopardizing Ghana's security, if they are not nipped in the bud." Dr Annin, who is the Head of Research at the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre in Accra, blamed political leaders, especially NPP and National Democratic Congress (NDC), for the volatile political environment.

Speaking in an interview with Ghana News Agency in Accra he criticised the NPP and NDC leadership who, according to him, had failed to spread the values and the norms inherent in the constitution Ghana to their supporters. "They haven't imbibed the values and the norms inherent in their own party regulation and then in their manifestos. You don't break the rules and the laws of the country so that you get access to political power. That kind of political power is immoral." Dr Annin called for condemnation of politics of violence to change the attitudes of most of our political elites who through their actions had demonstrated abhorrence for the rules, values and principles around elections and democracy.

He said Ghanaian political leaders had failed the electorate and were on the verge of failing the nation woefully. Dr Annin dismissed the notion that Ghanaians were peace loving people and could not take arms saying; "we must face the fact and the reality on the ground; the political leaders have sown seeds of violence, animosity and hatred throughout the country. "The youth have been psyched up for action; all that they are waiting for is the order to act; this we must stop from happening. Civil society actors, our religious leaders must speak out now against evil. "The religious leaders must use the pulpit not only to encourage their members to pay their tithes but also to speak against perpetration of violence, corruption, intimidation and political antagonism.if we die we cannot pay tithes."

Dr Annin also maintained that civil society actors, religious bodies and government institutions had a limit as to what they could do to salvage the situation "if political parties fail to see the essence of playing by the rules governing elections".

He urged political parties to stop the blame game and institute measures to stop the carnage and perpetration of violence and intimidation. They should also institute self-regulatory procedures to control their conduct both in public and in private.

"It is not the armed forces that should do it because that would be tantamount to a military state; it is not the police that should do it. It is not civil society because that would amount to basic civil disobedience, it's the politicians who should lead the way for peaceful general elections in December," Annin stated.

In a related development, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission. Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan has challenged the nation's security agencies to exercise high sense of neutrality in the enforcement of laws before, during and after the December polls.

"We must not enforce the law based on the political party colour that one adorns; we must not arrest somebody for merely 'smelling' an attempt to commit a crime whiles we look elsewhere when another actually commits a crime," Dr. Afari-Gyan stated during the first in a series of public dialogue initiated by the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) in Accra.

Dr Afari-Gyan urged the security agencies to adopt zero tolerance for election-related violence no matter who is behind or committing it.

He encouraged Ghanaians to hold their leaders accountable to their actions. "The people of Ghana should be critical of the behaviour of their leaders," he said. He expressed concern about the utterance of some political leaders portraying their opponents as devils. "The electoral contest is not between the angel and the devil; either we are all angels or we are all devils.if we are contesting against a devil then we need to examine ourselves and the motive for the elections again." 11 Aug. 08