The growing inclination towards partisan and ethnocentric considerations as against merit in the recruitment of personnel in especially, the security services is being alleged by many Ghanaians, particularly service men and women.
There is no gainsaying the fact that it is a socio-political issue we ignore to the detriment of the country’s cohesion. In a multi-ethnic society such as ours, an imbalance in any recruitment of personnel into the public or security services can be counterproductive and even spell disturbing and avoidable consequences for a much needed national cohesion.
Nigeria, although a federation, tackled the challenge posed by this phenomenon when it adopted the quota system of recruitment and even promotions in some institutions such as the Armed Forces, Police, Federal Civil Service and others.
The bitter lessons of the civil war in that country compelled Nigerians to think hard about a solution: this is represented by the adoption of the quota system.
Our circumstances vary from theirs, making their features unsuitable for us, suffice it however, that the lessons they learnt can inform our policy decisions.
Muffled and open grumblings now feature within public, civil and security circles about the breaches in appointment of personnel alongside eyebrow-raising transfers in especially, the Police and the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS).
A true cohesion of the country can only be achieved if we consign these inappropriate features to the dustbin of history and move forward as one people.
When Kwame Nkrumah proscribed some political groupings hinged upon ethnic and faith considerations, he sought to have a country bound by a common destiny and goals.
No country can move forward when citizens think more about their ethnic or faith backgrounds.
Elsewhere in this edition is a story about some movements in the GIS which smack of the traits of tendentiousness.
A retired senior officer is alleging breaches in recruitment procedures, including the marginalization of those who bought recruitment forms and wrote examinations as part of the process.
It would sound weird if none of those who parted with money, just so they can be considered for a career in the GIS, are disregarded for applicants on partisan and ethnocentric lines as being alleged.
Whoever is behind these breaches is doing great disservice to the country’s future; and would be singled out for sanctions by posterity.
Those who questioned the warped process or even demanded an update have been slapped with transfers.
Bad governance affects so many things in a country such as the anomalies being alluded to in state institutions.
Although the managements of such institutions claim to be acting in the manner they deem best, they are nonetheless only succumbing to the dictates of their sector ministers.
The political interference in the operations of state institutions must stop and pronto, lest we destroy these organizations which would definitely survive governments as they have always done.
It should be the pride of citizens entrusted with the management of state institutions to leave these establishments better than they met them.
Leaving them in shambles, as it is beginning to manifest through the unchallenged long hands of politicians, should not continue indefinitely.
The PR managers of these institutions must earn their pay by presenting good pictures to their publics but it would take more than such sugar-coated denials to prompt the positive changes that we are yearning for as a nation.
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