The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Sarpong, has stated that the fight against cross-border crimes, especially terrorism and drug trafficking, can only be won if ordinary people are sensitised to volunteer information.
He said informed publics across borders would be emboldened to freely offer information to law enforcement agencies that would help ECOWAS to fight cross-border crimes that posed a threat to the regional integration in West Africa.
The minister stated this in a speech read on his behalf by his Deputy, Mr Samuel Yaw Adusei, at the opening of a day’s public sector workshop on West African regional integration in Kumasi today.
The regional minister said the promotion of sub-regional trade, industry and commerce hinged on co-operation and interaction not only among political leaders of the West African sub-region but most importantly among ordinary citizens as regional integration remained critical to turning the fortunes of the sub-region.
According to Mr Sarpong, the affairs of ECOWAS needed to be brought home to the local citizens of the region to elicit their participation.
ECOWAS Gains
Opening the workshop, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ambassador Kwesi Quartey, said West African countries stood to gain if they collaborated to add value to the raw materials they produced.
He also suggested that graduates in La Cote d’Ivoire who were unemployed could be made to come and teach French language at basic schools in Ghana, while their Ghanaian counterparts could teach English in that country.
Ambassador Quartey said in addition to the fact that such initiatives could enhance regional integration, and provide employment for the graduates from both countries, they would also help in the teaching and learning of French and English in the two countries.
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