Ghana must be more vigilant on security – Dr Lekunze

The University of Aberdeen, Scot­land, Centre for Maritime Law Se­curity, and National Security recently organised a 2-day workshop on Education in National Security in Accra, to equip selected educa­tionists and teachers with valuable skills and knowledge to promote national security from the school level.

The Ghanaian Times had an inter­view with one of the facilitators, Dr Manu Lekunze, a lecturer in international Relations from the University of Aberdeen, and Inter­national security analysts.

Dr Lekunze convenes conver­sation on Africa security which brings leading African security experts and practitioners to discuss topical security issues in African. In addition to UK, conversations were held in Abuja (Nigeria), Accra (Ghana), and Bamako (Mali).

Below are excerpts of the inter­view.

Ques: What conversations have you been holding with stakeholders in Africa?

Ans: There is development all across the continent, there is infrastructural group improving health and all of those things that you might think of. Howev­er, in certain cases, as you might know, conflict, insecurity is increas­ing in certain parts of the conti­nent. So, what I do primarily is to research and understand what the causes of this insecurity are, and to begin to think about what could be done differently.

A lot of things have been done in the past 30 years, but we have seen little change in certain parts of the world. In some cases, like the case of Mali and Burkina Faso that you’ve mentioned, we’ve actually seen things get worse. So it’s, I’m really thinking, what could we do differently to ensure that things get better? And one of the things, and this is only one of them that identifies a role of education, is that I think education is doing great things in the African continent, but it could play a more significant role on values, knowl­edge, and skills that can foster better social and political order and better security.

Ques: What inform the workshop theme: ‘Education in National Security’?

Ans: So, first, the reason is that there’s a reasonable basis. So the education system in Ghana has its problems, but also has some very good aspects. National security in Ghana has its problems, but also has some very good aspects.

So it’s by taking something that is already working and trying to make it work better, is really why I’m very interested in Ghana, the situation is getting better, but could be even better. And working with Ghana is really trying to make things better. I think, fundamental­ly, across the world, education can play a larger role in security.

So I’m already convinced about that before coming to Ghana, but Ghana provides a unique oppor­tunity in that, there is a system in place, and it might not be the best, but it can be better. So there’s something to work with. Okay.

Ques: Ghana is touted as a peaceful country in a rather tur­bulent West African sub-region. What do you think Ghana must continue do, to sustain the peaceful and democratic environment?

Ans: Again, that’s another very good question. So yes, I agree with you that Ghana is seen as an island of peace, if you may put it like that, in a very turbulent region. And that is a good thing, Ghana is still relatively peaceful. However, this shows that Ghana has to be even more vigilant, because Ghana is in a region where things are not going the way most people will wish they are. It might not be af­fecting Ghana right now, but there is nothing to say that Ghana is immune to this kind of insecurity in the region.

So, Ghana has to be even more vigilant. What Ghana has is rare in the region, which means it’s more precious, therefore, needs more protection. So that’s why we are here to contribute our little bit to make sure that whatever it is that Ghana has, it doesn’t lose it, it keeps it.

And one of the key things, as I said earlier, is education. Educa­tion is not only dealing with the present generation, but it’s also dealing with the next and the next generations. So if we’re able to instill certain values in this young generation, certain skills, and certain knowledge to this young generation, they might be able to create a peaceful society, sustain a peaceful society, and pass on what we have given them to the next generation.

Ghana has a very youthful population, meaning that most Ghanaians are actually in schools, whether it’s in primary school, secondary school, or universities. So it’s really important that if you have a message for Ghanaians, you go into the education system. And the message we are bringing is a message of peace and security, which is sustainable.

Ques: What are your expecta­tions after the two-day workshop here in Ghana?

Ans: Again, a very important question. My expectation is that what the people in this room today have learnt, they will take it back to them. The first thing is that they will take it back and put it into practice, where they’re actually working now. So beginning on Monday, if you’re a teacher, you begin to put into practice what you’ve learnt here this weekend. But the bigger vision is that as we are working with all of these stakeholders, getting knowledge and building theories on how to improve practice will improve security, we take it back to the government and say, here’s the kind of policies that we need to be putting in place. Here’s the kind of programmes you need to be putting in place to imple­ment these policies, so that they can make the whole of Ghana a peaceful society, a stable and sustainable society.

So, this is only the beginning. We know that the people here will take whatever it is that we have given them to work, but we want to continue to work, build it bottom up all the way right up to the ministerial or the government level, so that it becomes a national policy that all Ghanaians can benefit from.

Ques: Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali have withdrawn from the ECOWAS to form the Alliance of Sahel States, What is the implica­tion on the fight against violent extremism in the sub-region?

Ans: Yes, so the three countries which have left, they have what they consider to be good reasons why they left. If everything was fine, I’m being very frank now, if everything was fine in ECOWAS, they probably wouldn’t have left. So they have what they claim to be good reasons why they left.

I think that incident alone should encourage people to take a step back and ask questions. What is go­ing wrong in West Africa that three of their members choose to leave the regional body? This has to be taken seriously, not just blaming those countries that they have left, but to sit down and reflect what pushed them out. We understand that they are still facing insurgency and terrorism problems, and we also understand that the problems in those three countries can spread to other countries.

So you cannot really disengage with them. You have to continue to engage with them to figure out how the other countries, whether it’s Ghana, whether it’s Nigeria, whether it’s Cote d’Ivoire, how they can continue to work with these nations to ensure that they deal with problems that are common to the whole of the region. This includes transnational terrorism or insurgency, this includes climate change, and this include farm­er-header conflicts.

These are conflicts that are com­mon to the whole of the region, and there must be a mechanism to be able to deal with those problems in a common way. Thank you very much!

BY ALHAJI SALIFU ABDUL-RAHAMAN

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