What did John Mahama mean when he said 'we cannot continue to rely on divine providence' about Ghana's security situation at the CFR event?

The line came during the "A Conversation with President Mahama" event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, not strictly the CFR session, though both were part of the same New York visit.

John Mahama warned that no country in the sub-region, including Ghana, is immune to terror attacks, saying: "I don't think Ghana is not vulnerable to attack. And maybe it's a question of when, not if." That was the setup. The "divine providence" line followed directly from it.

"If there's an almighty God somewhere who has protected us thus far, we cannot continue to rely on divine providence. We need to take action."

What he was actually saying

The statement is a deliberate rejection of complacency dressed in religious language. Ghana sits on the southern edge of the Sahel, the vast semi-arid belt stretching across West Africa that has become the world's fastest-growing terrorism hotspot. The Islamic State and Al-Qaeda have established strong footholds in the region, and terrorism and insurgencies have become visible security threats. Ghana has not suffered a major attack, and Mahama is saying that the absence of one is not evidence of safety; it may simply be fortune that hasn't run out yet.

The religious framing ("an almighty God somewhere") is deliberate too. Ghana is a deeply religious country, and leaders there often invoke God in public life. By invoking and then dismissing that comfort in the same breath, Mahama was signaling to his own audience at home as much as to the international room: faith is not a substitute for guns, intelligence and diplomacy.

What action he said Ghana is taking

He said Ghana is ramping up defence spending at the expense of education and health, increasing surveillance and intelligence exchange. That is a stark admission. Choosing guns over schools and clinics is a painful trade-off for a developing country, and saying it plainly in New York was a way of telling donors and partners that Ghana is not asking for help out of negligence.

Ghana has continued intelligence sharing with partners including the UK, Germany, France and the United States, and direct intelligence cooperation with Burkina Faso.

The broader argument he was making

Mahama traced the roots of the worsening terrorism crisis in the Sahel to the US and French-led overthrow of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. He said the subsequent military coups in the Sahel should be understood as a consequence, not a cause, of the security collapse. His argument is that the international community created this problem and now shares responsibility for solving it. The "divine providence" line sits inside that larger argument: Ghana cannot wait for either God or the West to fix what external interference broke.