Limited Registration, Ebola, Porous Frontiers

New Patriotic Party (NPP) General Secretary, Kwabena Agyepong, has raised a red flag over the all-time high insecurity at our borders.

Our frontiers have always been egregiously insecure anyway, but the new level of insecurity being noticed now prompts germane questions. As for the unapproved routes, the traffic should have risen to a worrying level now.

Political and health factors make such insecurity especially disturbing and irresponsible on the part of those in charge of the policing of our entry points. It is our hope that those manning the frontiers have not been ordered to stand down their guard for the political advantage of some people, to the disadvantage of national interest. That would have been an inappropriate precedence waiting to be repeated by a new set of Ghanaians at the helm of affairs.

It would appear that some of us would go to any length to score cheap political points regardless of how such manoeuvres affect national security.

A limited registration exercise is ongoing across the country, and considering the allegation of non-citizens flooding the country to have their names on the register of voters, the somewhat deliberate opening of the frontier gates, as it were, appears to give credence to the allegation.

Having survived the tension of the election petition hearing at the Supreme Court and previous disputed results, we think that the last thing Ghanaians should entertain is a flawed registration register—the basis of acceptable results.

The ease with which foreigners are able to come in and register, as has been speculated, is a recipe for a disputed future electoral exercise.

This is something we cannot afford to countenance again.

For an election to be credible a clean electoral register is a sine qua non. It is for this reason that we consider the action of those encouraging the insecurity of our frontiers inappropriate, especially if such persons are part of officialdom.

From a health perspective, the importance of manning our frontiers with all the vigour and sincerity at the disposal of the relevant security agencies cannot be overlooked, as the elusive Ebola marches on across the subregion.

Given the international emergency status of the disease it would be both irresponsible and inappropriate for authorities to pay lipservice to what is the world's most deadly contagion, by deliberately opening our frontiers for a free-for-all entry.

By this development the necessary screening of visitors into the country is nowhere near being implemented, as the country's flanks are opened to the risk of infected persons entering not being a factor for those in charge.

Let the challenge of national security and health guide the authorities in whatever they do in the sincere manning of our frontiers.