{"id":115952,"date":"2026-02-18T20:08:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T20:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=115952"},"modified":"2026-02-18T20:08:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T20:08:58","slug":"ghanas-security-exposed-by-defence-ministry-vacancy-nitiwul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=115952","title":{"rendered":"Ghana\u2019s security exposed by Defence Ministry vacancy \u2013 Nitiwul"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='booster-block booster-read-block'>\n                <div class=\"twp-read-time\">\n                \t<i class=\"booster-icon twp-clock\"><\/i> <span>Read Time:<\/span>1 Minute, 29 Second                <\/div>\n\n            <\/div><div>\n<p>Former Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul has sharply criticized President John Dramani Mahama over the prolonged absence of a substantive Defence Minister, warning that Ghana\u2019s security architecture is being exposed amid rising regional threats.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, he said the recent terrorist attack on Ghanaian tomato traders in Burkina Faso that killed eight highlights the urgent need for focused leadership at the Defence Ministry.<\/p>\n<p>He argued that the cross-border nature and scale of the attack require a fully mandated Defence Minister to coordinate investigations, intelligence, and a decisive national response.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just think that the Ghanaian government must be explaining to us what happened, the circumstances. I think the government has not yet come out. They\u2019ve come out officially with some statement, but we want a detailed explanation either by the Foreign Minister or by the Defence Minister,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/NITIWUL-SUBSTANTIVE.mp3-online-audio-converter.com_.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n<p>He stressed that the Defence Minister, rather than the Interior Minister, should have led the response:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why I kept on calling for the President to appoint a Defence Minister, because by this time the Minister for Defence should have been on the flight to Burkina with his team. This is not the job of the Interior Minister\u2026 the Interior Minister\u2019s job ends at Paga on the border.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t go beyond the border. It\u2019s the duty of the Minister for Defence, with defence intelligence and National Security, to have gone there, set up a team, investigate, and ensure that they find out the circumstances that led to it and how to prevent it from happening again,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Nitiwul warned that leaving the Defence Ministry without a substantive occupant risks weakening intelligence coordination and undermining Ghana\u2019s preparedness at a time of heightened regional instability.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n        <div class=\"booster-block booster-reactions-block\">\n            <div class=\"twp-reactions-icons\">\n                \n                <div class=\"twp-reacts-wrap\">\n                    <a react-data=\"be-react-1\" post-id=\"115952\" class=\"be-face-icons un-reacted\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\">\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/wp-content\/plugins\/booster-extension\/\/assets\/icon\/happy.svg\" alt=\"Happy\">\n                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Mahama over the prolonged absence of a substantive Defence Minister, warning that Ghana\u2019s security architecture is being exposed amid rising regional threats.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16502,11161,536,1883,117,10,9,3103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defence-ministry","category-dominic-nitiwul","category-ghana","category-national","category-news","category-politics","category-popular","category-security"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}