Unemployment, Poverty and Inequality: A threat to the stability of Ghana? By Lord Aikins Adusei Ghana faces several security challenges including growing influence of drug cartels, weapons proliferation, maritme piracy, climate change, and spill over effect of terrorism, militancy and civil war from neighbouring countries. These threats were acknowledged when the Chiefs of the Ghana Armed Forces recently held a seminar for junior officers and senior non-commissioned officers at the Jungle Warfare School at Achiase in the Eastern Region (see The Ghanaian Chronicle report headlined 'GAF meets on terrorism threat'10th April, 2012). It is believed that these security threats led to the formation of the Special Forces within the Ghana Armed Forces. However, there is one very critical yet hidden security threat that often does not get audience in policy circles but which has the potential to affect the long term peace, security, stability and development of Ghana. I am referring to the huge unemployment, poverty, and inequality in the country. It is fair to say that Ghanaian governments both past and present have shown a disproportionate lack of understanding of the security implications of having a large army of people who are poor, unemployed and marginalised in the country. Many policymakers in Ghana including members of Parliament, the Executive and top bureaucrats of the various ministries and departments do not consider poverty, unemployment and inequality as major security problem and policies have often tended to scratch the surface of these problems rather than getting to the bottom. Officially nobody knows how many Ghanaians are unemployed. Not even the Ghana Statistical Service or the Employment Ministry can tell. In his presentation of the unprecedented and phenomenal achievements in the recently released “NDC Forum for Setting the Records Straight” Mr. Fiifi Kwetey, Deputy Minister of Finance could not tell how many Ghanaians are unemployed except to say that: “… [The] levels of unemployment admittedly continue to be relatively still high and require a lot more efforts. There are no quick fixes though but the age-old need to continue to work hard to achieve faster expansion and growth of the economy which would open up more employment opportunities”. That is how far Mr. Fiifi Kwetey could go. He could not specifically tell how high the unemployment situation is. However, what is true is that many Ghanaians especially the youth who are looking for jobs and are willing to work cannot find any. This truth is exemplified by the recent formation of the Unemployed Graduates Association (UGA). While many of the youth have had access to secondary and tertiary education, the expanded access to education has not correspondingly given rise to expanded economic opportunities and job creation. Unofficially unemployment in the country is estimated to hover between 25 and 50%