Parliament has pushed through a controversial overhaul of the country’s security framework, passing the Security and Intelligence Agencies Bill, 2025 after a heated and closely watched legislative process.
At the heart of the changes is a symbolic — but telling — rebrand: the National Investigations Bureau is being renamed back to its former identity, the Bureau of National Intelligence (BNI). According to Interior Minister Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, the switch is meant to clear up an almost comical but persistent mix-up with the National Investment Bank, which shares the same “NIB” acronym.
But beyond the name change, the bill signals a deeper restructuring of power within Ghana’s national security apparatus.
One of the most striking shifts is the scrapping of the standalone Minister for National Security role. Instead, oversight of the National Security Coordinator will now fall directly under a minister appointed by the President — effectively tightening executive control over the country’s intelligence operations.
Supporters argue this streamlines decision-making and eliminates bureaucratic turf wars. Mohammed-Mubarak framed it as a necessary fix to institutional friction that has long complicated coordination at the highest levels of national security.
Critics, however, aren’t buying it.
Leading the pushback, Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has warned that the new law risks concentrating too much authority in too few hands. He argues that the bill lacks convincing evidence that the previous system — established under Act 1030 — was broken in the first place.
For opponents, the concern isn’t just structural — it’s democratic. They fear the changes could dilute parliamentary oversight and tilt the balance of power further toward the executive branch.
In other words, what’s being framed as administrative efficiency by one side is being viewed as institutional overreach by the other.
With the bill now passed, the real test will be how these changes play out in practice — and whether the promised efficiency comes at the cost of accountability.
Source:TheDotNews