By Rachel Kakraba
The National Coordinator of the Ghana Boundary Commission, Major General Emmanuel Kotia, says undertaking social interventions on border communities remains a priority of the Commission. He noted that such initiatives are critical to preventing unscrupulous persons and groups taking advantage of the vulnerability of deprived border communities for selfish gains.
“Most of the issues, the conflicts, and most of the issues of terrorism, and what have you, they are targeted on deprived border communities, because they can easily be brainwashed, they can easily be recruited, and then dissatisfaction among these communities becomes very rampant.”
He added, “so intervening in these areas is something that we’ve taken as a priority and that is part of border governance.”
Major General Emmanuel Kotia said this during a recent visit by the African Union Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Ambassador Bankole Adeoye. Ambassador Adeoye and his team were in Ghana to participate in the 45th Ordinary session of the African Union Executive Council meeting, which was convened in Accra. Major General Kotia, briefing the delegation, said the commission has spearheaded the construction and rehabilitation of some infrastructure along border communities to promote regional peace.
He made a case for budgetary allocation that would further enhance the work of the Commission.
“Currently, we have a bill in parliament, we’re making a case that some money should be allocated to the Boundary Commission so that we’ll be able to carry out certain strategic interventions. For instance, we look at cross border cooperation. It involves a lot of financial support.”
For his part, Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, commended Major General Kotia and his team for the efforts made to ensure peaceful coexistence with Ghana’s neighbors. He encouraged other AU member countries to continually work together for peaceful borders, because it promotes peace.
“I really want to commend the Commissioner General and his team for the very successful efforts being made to ensure that there will be peaceful coexistence with Ghana’s neighbors. Thank you very much for economic, political, democratic stability, and we see the next opportunities that will come with the elections on the 7th of December as a golden chance to reaffirm the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance.”
He assured of the AU’s readiness to send a formidable delegation to observe the December polls.
“I want to assure you that the African Union will be sending a formidable team of experts that will comprise members of our organs, members of our of the African Civil Society, working with ECOWAS in particular.”
The Ghana Boundary Commission ensures that Ghana’s land, maritime, and air boundaries are effectively secured and managed within the framework of International Law, Peace and security. It, among other things, determines and demarcates the land boundaries of Ghana and delimits the maritime boundaries in accordance with accepted principles of international law.
