All You Need To Know About Ghana’s ‘See Something, Say Something’ Campaign

The Ministry for National Security, Ghana has launched a citizens’ awareness campaign pointed toward protecting the country against terrorist attacks.

The campaign, named: “See Something, Say Something“, urges the general public to be careful of the activities of dubious characters and report such activities to the security agencies.

The launch forms some portion of the ministry’s border-psychological warfare procedure pointed toward sharpening the public to terrorism threats and empowering the populace to team up with state security organizations to reduce the danger of terrorism warfare in the country.

As a component of the campaign, a toll-free number — 999 — has been given to residents to quickly report dubious activities to state security agencies or use the emergency contacts and social media handles of the Ghana Police Service to draw the attention of state organizations to surprising activities within their communities.

Where mobile connectivity is a challenge, citizens are to report suspicious activities to their local police, traditional leaders, opinion leaders, heads of faith-based organisations and leaders of political parties who could expedite action to arrest any threat of terrorism attack situation.

Ambassadors Of The Campaign:

A few Ghanaian celebs and media characters have been appointed ambassadors for the campaign. They include: Kofi Kinata, Kwame Sefa Kayi, Dzifa Bampoe, Gifty Adorye, Nana Aba Anamoah and Rev. Dr Lawrence Tetteh.

Speaking at the launch, the Minister of National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah, said terrorism threats in the sub-region had developed to where dependence on just conventional tactics and strategies to combat it was ineffective.

Recent developments, he observed, indicated that the attacks perpetrated in the region and the Sahel had been highly unconventional.

The timing of the roll out of the campaign, he said, had, therefore, been informed by the need to implement more preventive measures following recent events in the West African region.

The minister explained that the involvement of the citizenry to support the state security with information on happenings in their localities, where the terrorists were likely to hide and commit their outrageous crimes, was essential and also made it easy for the state security agencies to identify and subsequently arrest such criminals with ease.

Nonetheless, he assured Ghanaians that the state security was working indefatigably to protect them against any such attacks. In this manner, citizens are additionally expected to quickly report dubious activities in their communities to the nearest state security offices.

Mr Kan-Dapaah said:

“We count on the public to take ownership of the campaign to support the state security agencies to reduce the threat of an attack on Ghana”.

The security circumstance in the sub-region is quickly decaying because of the danger and threat of terrorism and violent extremism. And Ghana is no exception. The country faces the risk of a spillover, as data from the global terrorism index indicate that the Sahel region has become the epicentre of terrorism and violent attacks.

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The risk of possible terrorism attacks is further compounded by the recent southward drift of terrorism from the Sahel region to coastal West Africa.

The country’s neighbours along the Gulf of Guinea, namely, Togo, Benin and Cote d’Ivoire, as well as landlocked Burkina Faso on the northern border, had been severely hit by terrorist and extremist groups in recent times.

This makes Ghana a practical destination in light of its gold resources and access to the Gulf of Guinea.

Ghana government says, they’ll continue to support the services of National Security, Defense and Interior and other pertinent state authorities to execute measures towards protecting the country against terrorism and fierce radicalism.

Meanwhile, Ghana’s Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said total mobilisation of the public would make the response robust.

The campaign, he said, would get the people to understand the nature of the threat and understand their role in helping to assist the security and intelligence agencies to respond appropriately.

He urged the media to use their various platforms to engage the public and deepen understanding of the role they could play to win the battle against terrorism.