The Vice President, Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang, has encouraged security and foreign affairs ministers at a High-Level Consultative Conference on Regional Cooperation and Security in Accra to ensure coordination, foresight, and timely sharing of information to effectively deal with terrorism, cybercrime, violent extremism and unemployment that threaten security in the sub region.
The Vice President on behalf of the President, John Mahama, said the challenges confronting the sub region require, foresight, holistic and structured approach.
“The challenges we face are increasingly interconnected and transnational. Violent extremism, terrorism, organised crime, cyber threats, and persistent youth unemployment do not respect borders, institutional mandates, or traditional policy silos. In this context, leadership requires more than responding to immediate pressures,” she said on January 30.
Prof Opoku-Agyemang encouraged the regional foreign and security ministers gathered to balance vision, pragmatism and national context to address the region’s challenges.
” Effective regional cooperation, therefore, depends on timely information-sharing, joint analysis, and coordinated responses. Acting together and proactively helps us identify risks earlier, ease the load on national systems, and maintain stability at a lower cost than responding after problems occur,” she stressed.
The outcomes of the Ministerial Meeting is expected to directly shape the deliberations of the Heads of State and Government at the Summit. The Vice President therefore urged the ministers to let their conclusions have both immediate and lasting significance.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa says the sub region faces existential threat as the global epicenter of violent extremism has moved from the Middle East to the region particularly the Sahel.
“I am not being alarmist when I accept that we face an existential threat. The global epicenter of violent extremism has moved from the Middle East to our region, specifically Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly the Sahel our region, is currently recording at least eight terror attacks a daily which claims, averagely, 44 lives every single day. 47% to 59% of all global terrorism related deaths are recorded in our region. We have witnessed a staggering rise in extremist attacks by 1,266% with an estimated death toll exceeding 2,860% over the last 15 years,” he stated.
Okudzeto Ablakwa who stressed the need for them to act now. He also urged his colleagues to be guided by foresight, and solidarity to ensure that the outcome document reflects not only the challenges the sub region faces but also the opportunities.
“Cooperation must be structured around mutually reinforcing fears, economic livelihoods, social development, peace and security. These pillars are tangible investment, social cohesion and trust in public institutions,” the Foreign Affairs Minister said.
He charged his colleagues to ensure the document that will be presented to the Heads of State is not a mere statement of intent but a road map for action that will embody clarity of purpose, fairness and the vision of solidarity that the region desperately needs.
