Editorial: Ghana must tackle piracy threat head-on

Nigeria, with a population of over 200 million people, is the largest economy in Africa with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $397.3 billion (2018 estimates). Unfortunately, the country’s territorial waters are considered one of the most dangerous on the African Continent because of the activities of pirates.  Ships and smaller boats are seized at random, with the pirates taking huge sums of money before their captives are released.

The situation, according to available statistics, is partially responsible for the nation’s bleeding economy, as over US$2.74 billion was paid by the country in the past four years as insurance surcharges and other sundry surcharges imposed on Nigerian shipments, simply because the country’s territorial waters are not safe for navigation.

This is the serious challenge confronting our far eastern neighbours, but they have not been able to fully deal with the situation, as the pirates are still terrorising crew members of vessels criss-crossing her territorial waters. It is on the basis of this that The Chronicle is alarmed with reports that seizure of crew on board vessels, which is alien to Ghanaians, is gradually becoming rampant in our territorial waters.

A couple of months ago, four Koreans on board a fishing vessel fishing in our territorial waters were seized by pirates and sent to Nigeria. They were later released, but The Chronicle cannot tell whether a ransom was paid or not. And just when Ghanaians thought it was a one off situation, another set of Korean crew members have been captured about one hundred nautical miles off the coast of Keta in the Volta Region.

Reports indicate that these pirates are using speedboats, and also wielding sophisticated weapons, making vessels traversing our territorial waters very vulnerable to their attacks. The Chronicle sees this as a dangerous development that must not be joked with by Ghana.

As we earlier indicated, Nigeria paid a whopping US$2.74 billion within four years as insurance surcharges and other sundry surcharges imposed on Nigerian shipments simply because the country’s territorial waters are not safe for navigation.

This is a huge sum of money that can even help in dualising all our major roads in the country, and we should not sit down idle for Ghana to also start paying this, simply because our waters are not safe for navigation. Apart from this anticipated cost to the nation, Ghana would also lose most of the cargo that come through our sea ports if the shipping lines realise that navigating in our waters is no more safe.

The Chronicle is, therefore, appealing to the Akufo-Addo government to do everything humanly possible to ensure that our navy has been properly equipped to deal with the current security threat staring at the nation.

Because Ghana is now an oil producing country, the pirates seem to have focused their attention here, and we should not sit down for them to overrun our security before we start finding an antidote to the problem.

With our GDP now hovering around $65.56 billion, the country is gradually marching towards the upper middle income bracket, and this pirates activity emerging in our waters should not be the impediment towards the achievement of this vital goal.

We should also not forget that Ghana is now the headquarters of the Africa Continental Free Trade (ACFT), and this is going to draw more investors into the country and beyond.

We cannot, therefore, afford to have this tag hanging our neck – that our waters are not safe. That will be a blot on our reputation.

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