Abstract:
The dawn of the twenty-first century has been marred by the 9/11 terrorist
attacks in the United States and brought to light the unexpected global debacle,
terrorism. Most countries began to map out remedies and national policies to
address the situation. Military spending shot up as many countries sought to
resource their armies to guard against future terrorist attacks. However, the
unconventional nature and continuous attack on civilians and public spaces
increased efforts to create public awareness and consciousness among the
civilian populace. This research, therefore, sets out to investigate the level of
consciousness and preparedness of the Ghanaian populace about the threat of
terrorism in public spaces. Drawing upon the United Kingdom’s “Prevent
Strategy,” this research opines that respondents are not conscious of the threat
of terrorist attacks in public spaces. Owing to the ever-growing threat of
terrorism and increase in death tolls of the ordinary citizenry in most terrorist
attacks, especially in parts of the African continent, this work finds relevance in
assessing how conscious the populace is about the schemes of terrorists and
signs that could lead to terrorism. Furthermore, as countries bordering Ghana
have all felt the brunt of terrorism, the research engages the citizenry on their
knowledge of terrorism threats in public places. The mixed survey method, with
questionnaires and interviews, was used to collect primary data to achieve this
objective. The research found that the majority of the respondents lacked the
requisite knowledge to detect the signs that could lead to terrorism. The research
recommends that a thorough awareness and consciousness creation campaign
be launched and maintained throughout the country. Public spaces should be
fitted with emergency directives to safeguard citizens from any terrorist attacks.
