Ghana should confront challenges and threats of oil find-Mpiani

Accra, Aug. 5, GNA- Presidential Affairs Minister Kwadwo Mpiani on Tuesday noted that Ghana needed to brace itself to confront the challenges and threats to national security as a result of the recent discovery of oil to enable the country reap maximum results from the find.

He observed that in the wake of the oil find, numerous businesses and a lot of people from the Sub-region would relocate to the Western Region and other parts of the country to provide goods and services for the operation of the industry, which could hold serious security implications for the economy and its development agenda. Fortunately, government, he said, was taking a cue from the experiences of Nigeria and other oil producing countries, with discussions underway, to find the best way to manage these resource and the resulting challenges.

Mr. Mpiani, who is also the Chief of Staff at the Presidency, was speaking at the opening of the fifth Security Sector Governance and Management Course at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC) at Teshie near Accra.

The three-week course is aimed at broadening the understanding of the generality of the Ghanaian society of the major political, economic, organisational and behavioural phenomena that are relevant to national security decision making.

Participants are drawn from the security agencies, civil society, and other stakeholders including policy-makers. Mr Mpiani said similar attention should be given to some of the emerging crimes in the country such as armed robbery, unexplained murders, chieftaincy and land disputes, mob justice and the use of Ghana as a transit point for narcotics because this were issues that held threats to the country's security. He said government was committed to the effective management and resolution of conflicts and crisis to "further enhance the peace Ghana is enjoying" in the West African sub-region. The Chief of Staff tasked the participants to make relevant contributions and to come up with appropriate recommendations for consideration by government. The Course is being run in collaboration Cranfield University, UK, the University of Ghana, Legon, the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, and the African Security Dialogue and Research, Ghana.