The Fulani Menace: The Lack of the Rule of Law.

One observation which continues to be a disturbing trend with respect to responsiveness on behalf of the citizens of Ghana, is the lack of a sense of urgency at all levels, especially where leadership is sought. It is poor, and one really wonders if the concept of having a sense of urgency is understood in the same context as western countries do, by our leadership.

A case in point is this Fulani problem, which the ?Ghanaian Chronicle? has written about several times, with the recent web article being that contained in http://allafrica.com/stories/200402161260.html, which really is quite disturbing. What right does any person have to destroy, property, the environment, rape, maim and kill citizens of a sovereign country? We are jailing our own citizens for such actions but leave nomads to met this treatment out against our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and children. Where is the logic?

At some point, this government will have to realize that there are issues that require swift action, aside from scandals, and it is this speed to resolve, which creates the appreciation for the responsiveness on the part of the authorities, and the government at large.

In allowing this Fulani issue to fester, we would be wrong to go after any citizen who takes it upon himself or herself to act in a manner that they find appropriate, only because government has failed to take action. The human tolerance differs and where there is no law with respect to an issue, as is the case here, we are only asking for the ?law of the jungle? to prevail. Is this our idea of rule of Law? Are we not condoning indiscipline?

Enough is enough. Where is the Interior Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry, which together must tackle this issue internally and also with the countries where these nomads hail from. Are we so blindly ?buried? in ECOWAS issues that we are leaving our citizens to be molested? I hope this is not a sign of what the ?peer review? will be about, with respect to the NEPAD initiatives. Turning a blind eye to potential problems.

There are several unacceptable ways to resolve this problem, but that is not what is being advocated. We ask the government to simply define its role in this matter, and if they lack the will to bring a resolve to the issue, then the people must take initiatives to curb the savage act being meted against them by foreigners in their own land, with indirect approval and supervision of their government, by default. A failure to act.

For Law and order to be appreciated and respected by what has been a lawless landscape for a long time, it needs to be responsive, and must win the confidence of the people. Without this, we are just wasting time with the cheap talk of ?Law and order?, ?indiscipline? and all those silly buzzwords we have heard so much of, without much action.

We do this by quickly and boldly taking measures that are prudent in terms of defining what the rules are, and what actions will be taken to create security for the victims and the extent of the law as it applies to violators.

For all we know these nomads could be cattle herdsmen during the day and highway armed robbers at night, killing our citizens and making Ghana a bad destination for investment due to crime etc. Let us be forward thinking.

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