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The Director of the Faculty of Academic Affairs of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping and Training Centre (KAIPTC), Dr. Kwesi Aning, has argued that securing Ghana’s borders is not a sure bet the country can insulate itself from terrorist attack.

“If anyone tells you to focus on borders, then the person does not understand the changing nature of the terrorist threat”, he stated in an interview on Accra FM’s morning show on Wednesday.

According to the security expert, the securing border approach to combating terrorism is at odds with the different strategies employed by terrorists and that, “If anything (act of terror) will happen, those who will commit the act are already here. The guns are already here, 2.3 million [of them]. They don’t need to bring in a gun across the border,” he told the host.

Dr. Kwesi Aning cited the terrorist attack in Ivory Coast where the terrorists approached the country by sea as an example and added “So, when you send people to the borders and you arm the border guards, it just reflects that you are not up to speed with the reality of the challenge”.

“In Grand Bassam the terrorists came by sea, an open sea front. So, we shouldn’t suddenly rush to put armed men on every beach when there is a hotel. So, we need to think outside the box. Unfortunately, stone-pipe thinking is what drives this conversation around terrorism in West Africa”, he cautioned.

He called for a shift in thinking on the part of the country’s security chiefs to ensure that the threat of an imminent terrorist attack is crushed.

“I think we should be humble, honest, and ask: ‘What is the nature of the threat? Who are those who might want to do it? What do we need to look for in trying to identify…and to prevent?” Dr. Aning added.

According to him, the matter of the possibility of a terrorist attack on Ghana began surfacing six to seven years ago, and when some persons, including him, sounded the alarm, some security capos accused them of creating fear and panic.

“So we’ve looked at this thing wrongly and we are still looking at it wrongly,” he observed.