The Media Must Expose Those In Our System Whose Greed And Disloyalty To Mother Ghana Empower Criminals

Is our homeland Ghana a soft touch for foreign criminals - who are said to be entering our country in droves?

Anecdotal stories one hears, suggest for example that rental rates in Accra and other cities and towns  across urban Ghana, are being driven up by demand from foreigners - particularly those from sister West African nations such as Nigeria.

Since Ghanaians also live in those sister nations it is important that we place more emphasis on the fact that regional integration benefits young people across the sub-region.

What we must do as a sovereign people is to plan and  strategize to ensure that foreign criminal elements are not allowed to take advantage of the free movement of citizens across the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) - a right meant to benefit the sub-region's  law abiding younger generations - to hold us to ransom in our own country.

One of the most effective ways we can stop foreign criminals from abusing our hospitality in Ghana, is to pass tough new laws that will make foreigners who pass themselves off as Ghanaians - in order to obtain the new Ghana ID card - face mandatory 15-year jail terms after prosecution in our law courts.

And one has to agree with those who insist that there are far too many criminals from sister West African nations operating in our country - who somehow succeed in unlawfully acquiring Ghanaian passports and sundry ID cards in our byzantine system.

A notable example is the 2016 case of the brazen Nigerian kidnapper and ex-drug baron, Chikwudubem Onwuamadike -  apparently popularly known by his nickname 'Evans' in his native Nigeria  - who was said to have a Ghanaian passport bearing the surname Asare and also had properties in Accra, where his wife and children were permanently living.

The question is: In an age of global terrorism, should we not make it a precondition that every foreigner who wants to take advantage of the ECOWAS Treaty's free movement of people to temporaly live in Ghana for any length of time, must have his or her DNA, fingerprints, photographs and other bio-data taken by the relevant security agencies, at their own expense?

Finally, the more responsible sections of the Ghanaian media must focus on exposing the bad nuts in our system - particularly personnel from the  security agencies - whose greed and disloyalty to Mother Ghana allow criminals to enter and live freely in Ghana to engage in all manner of nefarious activities such as: cybercrime;  organising prostitution rings; carrying out daring armed robberies, callously gunning down security agency personnel;  and defrauding innocent people. Enough is enough. Haaba.