The Member of Parliament for Klottey Korle, Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, says combatting extremism and piracy in West Africa is a collective regional accountability.
According to Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings particular person ECOWAS member states can’t take care of the problems unilaterally as a result of they’re large and sophisticated.
“Security issues require international collaboration and cooperation and it means member states should be able to draw each other’s attention to happenings within their territories that have the potential of creating vulnerability for the sub-region.”
Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings, who can also be the Deputy Ranking member on Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee, was, nonetheless, fast to level out that tackling the disaster was not solely about conferences and conferences but in addition required member states to share candid details about developments and vulnerabilities inside their territories that require assist from the regional physique.
The Klottey Korle legislator stated in a press release, that beforehand when one heard of piracy, it was primarily within the Horn of Africa and appeared distant, however statistics on maritime crime final yr indicated that ninety per cent of piracy was within the Gulf of Guinea.
She attributed the entire state of insecurity and piracy to the scramble for assets, including; “the huge oil reserves in the West Africa sub-region have led to the movement of commercial vessels which make it an important region economically.”
The Member of Parliament additionally highlighted the truth that the landlocked areas within the area depend on entry to the ocean for imports and exports, additional contributing to the vulnerability and insecurity.
She added that within the wake of the unfold of violent extremism, it’s changing into apparent that the perpetrators are drifting southwards, intent on accessing the ocean and clearly they’d need to goal coastal international locations comparable to Cote d’lvoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.
Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings additionally expressed fear over the penchant for elected leaders to increase their tenure by amending their constitutions to hunt additional phrases. She stated these are points many don’t need to discuss, they’re the causes of discontent and instability which could be capitalized upon by extremists.
She stated such developments result in weaknesses inside our sub-region that have to be addressed and brought on board severely. “It defeats the purpose of having ECOWAS and AU. Member states are to adhere to the various agreements for the betterment of the citizens”, she emphasised.
The Klottey Korle MP stated one other issue that contributes to the unfold of violent extremism was corruption and the inequitable distribution of assets which leads to gaps in native authorities, making a vacuum capitalized upon by a few of these extremist teams. These extremists then take benefit to radicalize the youth and in some situations present the required facilities that governments fail to supply communities.
Source: graphiconline.com
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