President Akufo-Addo has charged the National Security Ministry and all its partner security institutions to prioritize the full implementation of the country’s first-ever National Security Strategy (NSS) in order to ensure that Ghana remains a peaceful and secure state.
The NSS is the blueprint reference document for the coordination of the total national response effort to protect and safeguard the nation from threats, risks, challenges to its security and stability from both the domestic and international environments.
Addressing a brief ceremony today, 7th of June 2021, to officially launch the first-ever National Security Strategy and to commission the new national security building at the forecourt of the National Security Ministry, President Akufo-Addo said the strategy has been developed at a time when the threat to the security of the country and the West African sub-region is on the increase. The President, therefore noted that the country’s security apparatus owe the people of Ghana a duty to implement the strategy without fail in order to secure the territorial integrity of the nation at all times.
“The strategy, regardless of its potency, cannot yield desired results until successfully implemented. Our success will therefore be based on how we implement the National Security Strategy,” President Akufo-Addo said.
“The Ministry of National Security will serve as the lead government ministry for the implementation of the strategy,” President Akufo-Addo added.
Need for Education and Sensitization on the NSS
The multifaceted nature of the National Security Strategy which assigns different roles to various ministries, departments and agencies according to President Akufo-Addo, “underscores the need for extensive education and sensitization on the content of the strategy”.
“I have thus tasked the Minister for National Security to organize workshops for all Ministers, Regional Security Councils, leadership and Members of Parliament, members of the Judiciary, religious leaders, the National Peace Council, the National House of Chiefs, Civil Society Organisations, youth and women’s groups, and various educational institutions, to deepen their understanding of their roles in the implementation of the strategy,” President Akufo-Addo noted.
Security Fund
In his address, President Akufo-Addo acknowledged, “On matters regarding the implementation of strategies that are beneficial to the state, resource allocation and budgetary funding are key”. To this end, the President welcomed the provision in the strategy that requires the Ministers responsible for Finance and National Security to work hand in hand to establish a fund to guarantee adequate resources for the execution of the NSS.
“Informed by this, the National Security Strategy requires the Minister for Finance to collaborate with the Minister for National Security to establish a security fund to support the implementation of the strategy in emergency and crisis,” President Akufo-Addo stated.
Our historically traditional orientation of national security tends to give the notion that the sole purpose of the national security apparatus is to defend the territorial integrity and the sovereign rights of Ghana and the security of the regime. This orientation loses sight of the fact that such territorial defence is actually a means to ensure the security of the citizens of Ghana, to protect and empower them to live in peace and dignity.
In seeking to correct this traditional orientation, the National Security Strategy (NSS) recognises the individual Ghanaian citizen and his local community as the primary referent objects of national security policy planning and delivery. In addition to the defence of Ghana’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, therefore, the safety, security and well-being of the citizens of Ghana are paramount in the NSS.
A more pre-emptive, all-inclusive approach with a blend of both traditional national security responses and human security responses is therefore adopted in the strategy. Effectively ensuring national security and stability would in this context, require that Ghana adopts a comprehensive and integrated national security strategic framework that ensures constant monitoring of the threat situation, proactive prevention, mitigation and management of the threats, risks and security challenges to our national interests.
It is within this context that the NSS is formulated. Its formulation and implementation are based on the central tenet of a whole-of-government and whole-of-society involvement that is grounded in the principles of unity of purpose and coordination of effort to enhance social cohesion, tolerance, national security and national stability.
The responses in the NSS to the threats, risks and security challenges posed to Ghana, seek to ensure the self-preservation of Ghana as a prosperous, stable and sovereign state, that is able to provide for the safety and well-being of its citizens and inhabitants.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
