President Goodluck Jonathan and Mohammadu Buhari's presidential campaign billboards pulled down in Ghana

 

Worried about the security implications, the government of Ghana has taken down campaign billboards belonging to the two main Nigerian presidential candidates which were erected in Accra, the Ghanaian capital.

According to reports, the order to take down the billboards was given by Ghana’s national security agency and was carried out over the weekend by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly.

Both Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the APC candidate and Pres. Goodluck Jonathan, the PDP candidate, had erected billboards and banners in strategic areas in Accra.

 

 

According to reports, the decision to pull down the billboards was said to have come amid fears by some Ghanaians that their country could be drawn indirectly into the politics of Nigeria, with security implications, especially with the Boko Haram terrorists wreaking havoc in Nigeria.

Following the order by the National Security, according to GhanaWeb, a security expert at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Dr. Kwesi Annin, had indicated that Ghana had been saved from a possible attack by the terrorist group, Boko Haram, by pulling down the billboards put up in some parts of Accra.

He was quoted to have said that political elite in the country could have been targeted by Boko Haram if the political campaign in Ghana was not stopped.

 

He said, “I think it is critical that the National Security and Accra Metropolitan Assembly have listened to the concerns and voices raised by ordinary citizens that these billboards and some level of active political engagement might pose potential threat in the future.”

 

He said the removal of the billboards should not only be about Boko Haram, but also about whether or not laws governing the country permit foreign political entities to campaign in Ghana.

 

Also, an international relations expert, Dr. Vladmir Antwi Danso, the situation of pulling down the billboards also saved Ghana from being perceived as supporting a particular candidate.  And such situation has the tendency of marring relationship between Ghana and Nigeria in the future.  He stated, “What if after the elections the scales change, then the relationship between our country and Nigeria will also have some hiccups,”