PREVENTING CROSS-BORDER CRIME (DEC 21, 2009)

ALTHOUGH globalisation is touted to have the panacea for bringing nations together to share common resources, it equally has its negative effects.
The World Wide Web has reduced the world to a global village and has also brought in its wake negative influences such as cross-border crimes and negative cultural attitudes.
It is against this background that the Daily Graphic thinks the decision to arm personnel of the border patrol unit of the Ghana Immigration Service to help check the increasing cross-border crimes in the country must be encouraged.
The Daily Graphic is encouraged that the Ministries of the Interior and Defence have been tasked to draw up modules for the take-off of the exercise to ensure that the people who would be involved do not misuse the power and weapons that will be given to them.
Not long ago, majority of our people lived in a state of fear and insecurity because armed robbers had decided to make life uncomfortable for the citizenry. Some of these criminal gangs were believed to be nationals of our neighbouring countries.
We are not saying that our brothers and sisters of neighbouring countries were responsible for the armed robberies across the length and breadth of the country, but the Daily Graphic is also aware that until we opened our doors to our brothers and sisters from neighbouring countries, criminal activities had not attained the present level of sophistication.
Some of these foreign criminals collaborate with local accomplices who understand the national psyche very well to terrorise the people.
Tightening border security through arming of personnel at the border patrol unit of the Ghana Immigration Service could not have come at an appropriate time.
The Daily Graphic calls on the appropriate agencies to sensitise personnel of the unit to put Ghana first in all their endeavours.
We are groping in the dark, still struggling to find the right model for our development, because in many instances, persons put in charge of state institutions have abused the trust reposed in them. Some of these people use the opportunity offered them by the state to amass wealth to the detriment of the people.
We recall with pain that one of the reasons for the abolition of the border guards in the 1970s, was that the personnel encouraged smugglers to undermine the stability of the economy in the country. Certainly, such atrocious behaviour cannot be countenanced by any right-thinking member of society and we trust it will never be repeated by the new crop of men in the immigration service.
As we go back to arm the men and women who patrol our borders, the Daily Graphic calls on relevant institutions to learn the useful lessons of the past and take steps to prevent the situation where some staff of the unit would become allies of criminal gangs.
This is crucial for our well-being as a people and nobody must give the government the cause to regret this brilliant decision.