A number of national security issues crops up in Ghana

0
Kotoka International Airport (KIA)
Kotoka International Airport (KIA)

In the midst of the confusion, untruths and spins underpinning the Ruby cocaine saga from uncoordinated government control centres as it were, a number of issues of national security importance have cropped up.

kotoka-airport
kotoka airport

These issues, though inimical to prudent and overall national security management, have hardly come under the public radar, let alone warrant a national conversation because of their obscurity.

We have had the pain of listening to interventions from a number of government appointees in the past few days ? submissions which have triggered more questions though not attracting intelligent and convincing responses from a propaganda gang seemingly in disarray.

Beneath all the contradictory submissions lies the ?all-important challenge of an efficiency-deficient Research Department of the Foreign Ministry which, as things stand, the National Security Council should not be proud of. As an important security outfit responsible for, among other things, detailing staffers to work at the Kotoka International Airport, it is this unit which simply prepares the roster for VIP and VVIP sections of the airport. It stands to reason therefore that the Director of this unit, a certain Bartels or so, has a responsibility to tell Ghanaians what he knows about those who were detailed to manage affairs at the airport on that fateful date.

Unless it is established otherwise, we have reason to believe that the SPD registered vehicle which allegedly drove Ruby to the BA aircraft and the appearance of those now arrested for their alleged roles in the Ruby affair happened under the purview of the Research Department.

As a notorious unit noted for surveillance activities of not only the opposition leadership such as Nana Akufo-Addo or former President Jerry John Rawlings, this department must now form part of the discussion of the failings of the management of the VIP or the VVIP sections of the Kotoka International Airport.

When the dust settles in the weal of national security, President Mahama should consider an overhaul of a unit which though obscure to the public eye, is critical in the overall management of national security.

The business of running the Research Department is not about running a piggery.

Not even the Number One Citizen is safe from the concealed challenges confronting the Department where it would appear an auditing of the place would be in the national interest.

Unless the shortcomings which we have tried to highlight in a limited space were spawned to facilitate the smuggling of the narcotic stuff, then the Research Department must be audited to establish its role or otherwise in what happened.

We do not want to subscribe to the speculation that in the face of the financial challenges staring the government, some hot-headed guys have found in Ruby?s role a handy way out to provide the much needed resources to oil the campaign machinery of the ruling party.

Be it as it may, the Department must be audited against the backdrop of not only the raging Ruby story, but its overall performance and the spy work it has engaged in to the detriment of the growth of democracy.

Send your news stories to [email protected] Follow News Ghana on Google News

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here