Former Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul has sharply criticized President John Dramani Mahama regarding the prolonged absence of a substantive Defence Minister, warning that Ghana’s security architecture is being exposed amidst rising regional threats. Speaking on the floor of Parliament, Mr. Nitiwul highlighted the recent terrorist attack on Ghanaian tomato traders in Burkina Faso, which resulted in eight deaths, as a stark example of the urgent need for focused leadership at the Defence Ministry.

Mr. Nitiwul argued that the cross-border nature and significant scale of the attack necessitate a fully mandated Defence Minister to effectively coordinate investigations, gather intelligence, and mount a decisive national response. He emphasized that the Ghanaian government must provide a detailed explanation of the incident and its circumstances, ideally from either the Foreign Minister or, more appropriately, the Defence Minister.

He strongly maintained that the Defence Minister, not the Interior Minister, should lead such a critical response. “That’s 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,” Nitiwul stated. He clarified that the Interior Minister's mandate is primarily concerned with internal security and ends at Ghana's borders, making it unsuitable for cross-border incidents involving military action against terrorists.

According to Mr. Nitiwul, it is the explicit duty of the Defence Minister, in collaboration with defence intelligence and National Security structures, to establish a team. This team's mission would be to travel to the scene, investigate the circumstances leading to the attack, and formulate measures to prevent future occurrences. He stressed that leaving the Defence Ministry without a substantive occupant risks weakening intelligence coordination and undermining Ghana’s overall preparedness at a time of heightened regional instability and security threats in the West African sub-region.