Should Ghana's National Security Advisor Step Down From His Position?

"The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil, than those who actually commit it."  
                       - Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist.

Those who know him, say that the present National Security Advisor, Alhaji Baba Kamara, is an affable gentleman. However, no Ghanaian who believes in democracy, can remain silent, whiles he abuses his position in egregious fashion.

It is such a pity that his high-handedness, over the weekend, has led to many fair-minded and patriotic Ghanaians condemning him, for ordering the arrest of the managing director of Granites and Marbles Company Limited, Dr. Edmund Ayo Ani, merely for allegedly taking photographs of vehicles in his privately-owned yard on the Spintext Road.

It is a most unfortunate development - as Alhaji Baba Kamara's private property can never be considered a security zone, simply because of his official position as the National Security Advisor.

His capricious action is a classic example of an important state official poorly served by his advisors. Why did he not simply lodge a complaint against Dr. Ani at the nearest police station, for invading his privacy?

It definitely was a grave error of judgement, on the part of Alhaji Baba Kamara, to order Dr. Ani's arrest, by the police, in such high-handed fashion - in what was a personal matter of his, not a national security matter. Alas, it raises a number of important issues.

To begin with, could it not be argued that if any Ghanaian citizen sees what he or she genuinely believes to be  fifty state-owned vehicles, being sprayed in the colours of a governing party, in an election year, in a private yard owned by a leading member of that selfsame governing party, who also happens to be the National Security Advisor, that citizen is duty-bound to alert society about it?

And is it not really stretching it for the National Security Advisor to imply that somehow the act of photographing those vehicles in his privately-owned yard - allegedly by Dr. Ani - endangered his personal security? How can that be?

With respect, what constitutes the personal security of the National Security Advisor, Alhaji Baba Kamara, in the circumstances outlined above, neither rightfully constitutes a national security issue, nor can rightfully be labelled a national security concern, which the National Security Advisor can determine on his own, arbitrarily.

We must not forget that someone's freedom was taken away from him because of an unjust order from the National Security Advisor, simply because he felt irritated that that person had invaded his privacy, by allegedly photographing the inside of  his privately-owned yard. Is this not a nation of laws? Is Alhaji Baba Kamara above the law?

It is for the law courts, not Alhaji Baba Kamara, to decide whether Dr. Ani acted unlawfully under the circumstances - as there are clear limits to the powers of the National Security Advisor to order the arrest of law-abiding individuals, who are neither a threat to the safety of the Republic, nor to the persons of their fellow citizens: especially when they are arrested merely for putting out into the public domain what they genuinely believed to be the misuse of what they mistook for fifty state-owned vehicles being resprayed for use as the governing party's election campaign vehicles.

It would have been far more prudent for the National Security Advisor to have simply issued a statement denying the allegation that state-owned vehicles were being sprayed into the colours of the ruling  party, in his privately owned yard, and left it at that.

The National Security Advisor's knee-jerk reaction has opened a can of worms, alas - as many in Ghana understand that high-level corruption results mostly from the opaqueness of party funding.

The question is: Where exactly do political parties such as the NDC, and New Patriotic Party (NPP), get their campaign funds from, to purchase so many election campaign vehicles?

Now, he will have to provide strict proof, of a  tall list of things to prove to the world that the said vehicles are not state-owned vehicles secretly taken over by the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Soon, sections of the media will be demanding that he provides them with all the particulars of the said vehicles - such as their chassis numbers, Driver And Vehicle Licensing Authority registration documents, who paid for them, and when, etc., etc.

And who knows if others too might want to  know when they were imported into the country, and what evidence there is to show that all import  duties due to the state, were paid on all the fifty vehicles?

Ghana is a democracy in which no one is above the law. The National Security Advisor's hasty reaction to the photograph of some of the said vehicles appearing on social media websites led to the wrongful arrest of Dr. Ani. Clearly, the National Security Advisor's action was ultra vires.

It is important that henceforth the Ghana Police Service stops allowing itself to be treated as an Establishment tool by those in power. They are not. This is not the colonial era, is it? Why did they not consider whether it was a lawful order or not, before arresting Dr. Ani?

They must take a leaf from the book of their British counterparts - who never take "orders from above," and never hesitate to arrest even government ministers, MPs and royalty, when they break the law.

The freedoms Ghanaians enjoy today, were won at great cost - which is why they must be jealously guarded by patriotic citizens, irrespective of the party affiliation of those whose rights are abused by state officials.

Perhaps, the National Security Advisor ought to consider stepping down, for acting so capriciously. Ghana is not a dictatorship in which highly-placed public officials can arbitrarily cause the arrest and detention of ordinary citizens who annoy them.

We must ensure that our homeland Ghana continues to remain a thriving and vibrant African democracy. Let Alhaji Baba Kamara examine his conscience in this matter - and step down. After all, he can continue to work for his party, without necessarily remaining Ghana's National Security Advisor.