Edward Kwaku Asimeni, Deputy National Security Coordinator, has called for the private security firms to collaborate with the state security agencies to enhance training regimes for personnel to improve the general standard of security delivery to the citizenry. He said this during Africa Security Conference at the Accra International Conference Center.
Says National Security has undergone a significant evolution. It initially entails protecting a state and its regime from traditional threats. However, the concept has recently shifted to human security, where the human is at the centre of the security discourse. This paradigm shift has also broadened the range of security threats that nations must grapple with to safeguard human safety. These threats include food, energy, environment, economy, politics, community and personal security threats. In effect, many governments are revising their notes regarding the approach to be adopted in dealing with the multiplicity of problems that can potentially arise with the threats.
Mr Edward noted that an all-inclusive approach involving all stakeholders and actors within the security service and society can be a panacea to the threats. In line with the aforementioned remedy, the government implemented an all government- all society approach. He explained that the all-society approach includes the media, civil society, religious groups and people within the private sector to act as key collaborators with state security agencies to eradicate the earlier stated threats. This brings to the fore, the role of private security in augmenting the work of national security, especially in the area of community and personal security.
Furthermore, the role of private security has become imperative due to the increasing rate of the country’s population that outpaces the power of national security. He noted that the increase directly affects the surge in crime in society.
He however bemoaned the lack of proper investment in the recruitment, training, remuneration and periodic capacity building of private security personnel as some of the challenges associated with private security. Consequently, they become a liability rather than augment the work of the state security apparatus.
Regardless, the role of private security firms in augmenting the work of state security cannot be over-emphasized.
