Do nations need standing armies? Does Africa need them? Should expenditure on soldiers come before preparing for natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes? Stephen K. Agyemang-Duah says nations, especially African nations, should abolish standing armies and put the expenditure into disaster relief.

On 17 August last year, the world awoke from sleep to hear the report of the devastating earthquake in Turkey. In all, over 17,000 people died and many thousands more were injured.

This was not the first major earthquake in Turkey. Yet, as the British weekly, The Economist, reported: "It seems incredible that Turkey, which sits on a geological fault-line, had no dedicated rescue team. Not only did the government fail to train and equip such a force, it also failed to mobilise the one institution whose strength and discipline are legendary: the army. As skilled foreign technicians bored, chiselled and hacked their way into the mounds of compacted debris, and as Turkish volunteers ferried in food and dug desperately with their own machinery, tools and hands, their government froze."

It was not until fully four days after the quake that the government finally got the army going.

Last year alone, the earthquake bandwagon moved from Turkey to Greece toTaiwan to Mexico, and back to Turkey and Taiwan again. Earthquakes of this nature have hit many nations in the past, including Morocco, Mexico, the US and Russia. The toll in human lives, buildings and the infrastructure has been immense.

In 1999 alone, 52,000 people died in natural and man-made disasters around the world. Earthquakes killed about 25,000 in Turkey and Taiwan alone, storms killed 16,000 people in India and the Americas, and floods killed thousands more in Venezuela. The monetary cost of last year's disasters is estimated at $40bn.

Earthquakes are beyond human control. Siesmologists can only occasionally predict their occurrence. Even then they cannot confidently say when and where they will occur, and how big they will be. Because we cannot stop earthquakes from occurring, we are resigned to live with them.

Therefore what should governments do? What happens if another major earthquake occurs today in, say, Africa? Earthquakes are, admittedly, not one of Africa's greatest problems. But it has happened before in Morocco, and it can happen again elsewhere in Africa. How are we prepared for it? How are we prepared for other natural disasters like floods and storms in Africa?

Turkey, as shown above, was woefully unprepared for its big quake. There was no sophisticated equipment to detect and search for survivors. People used their bare hands and crude tools to dig through the rubble.

Turkey is said to have one of the largest armed forces in the world. And here comes my main point. Nations spend billions of dollars to maintain standing armies even though they may face no threat of war. If all nations abolished their standing armies, more money could be made available for every country, including those in Africa, to buy sophisticated equipment and train personnel to handle natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, fires etc.

What are the priorities of nations, including our nations in Africa? What should governments do? How much of the gross national product (GDP) have governments consistently allocated and utilised for the procurement of equipment and the training of personnel to attend to such disasters? There appears to be not much consideration given to this. In Africa, the least said the better.

Some may say it is not practicable to abolish standing armies. But why not? The only reason for standing armies is human nature, which is greedy, covetous, dishonest, full of lies and deceit.

Why do people or nations fight? They fight to get what does not belong to them. Nations go to war to conquer, capture and loot from the vanquished. If all nations do away with covetousness, there will be no fear of wars. And without the fear of wars, there is no need to keep standing armies. The money saved from the standing armies could then be used to buy the required sophisticated equipment and train personnel to handle natural disasters.

Costa Rica, such a small country as it is, has wisely abolished its standing army. It now lives in peace, and is using its resources only for the social and economic benefit of its citizens. African countries can do the same. It is possible to beat our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into pruning hooks - if only we will do away with greed, covetousness and dishonesty.

Then, the money Africa and the world are spending on standing armies could be used for contingency plans for natural disasters. Such preparedness will ensure more success in rescue efforts, because personnel and equipment will be on hand at the scene in a matter of minutes, before help comes from other countries. Many more people could be saved than we are doing now.

I think the provision of rescue service for natural disasters should be the priority of every government. If there is anything to learn from the Turkish problem, it is that, unlike wars, natural disasters are beyond human control. Nobody knows when and where the next earthquake or natural disaster will occur. How are governments preparing for them? How are we preparing for them in Africa?