At times when issues like this come up, then we get frustrated and become very angry to an extent that we want to do the unthinkable but when we look at the love we have for mother Ghana, we restrain ourselves but then we keep asking the question whether Ghana Police Service is for some individuals or for Ghanaians as stated by article 200(1) of the 1992 constitution. Does the police service belong to all Ghanaians including the serving police personnel particularly the junior ranks? Some say it’s for cronies and I am beginning to believe it.
In the military, these policies are clear and people serving in the army are well informed about such policies so they don’t generate controversies but in the police service, it is the other way round. In the military you cannot cross over from the junior rank to the senior rank as enlistments and policy guidelines are clear on that and those who wish to cross over to senior rank should prepare to forfeit their entitlements due them whilst they were junior ranks or resign and apply to join the senior ranks.
You choose where you want to serve in the military, either in the senior rank or junior rank. Due to this, I have always chosen the police service over the military since we cannot all start from the senior levels because some must start from the scratch and sustain the system for others to come and join from the top but there should be chances of progressing in a fair and free manner. We should not be stifled in growth and development because we started from the junior levels. We are beginning to believe that the police service is for cronies instead of all Ghanaians including we the serving personnel in the junior ranks.
What seems to cause an uproar and grumbling probably at the blind side of the police administration are the recent publications about enlisting graduates and professionals outside the police service into the service. Maybe the police administration has heard the rumblings below the structures of the police service. If people continue to rumble and rumble for a very long time, they will burst and that will bring crisis but before then, the administration has every opportunity to engage them to avert such a crisis. Sometimes we still cling to the beliefs that we are in a regimental institution so the people cannot do anything and therefore we take them for granted. They can only complain but can’t do anything. I think the world has evolved and we should do away with this kind of wishful thinking. Human beings are unpredictable and it is a proven fact.
Nobody is against the police administration enlisting graduates into the police service. It could be government’s quota and policy to mop up some of the teeming unemployed graduates on the streets so we are not against it but it should not be done at the expense of those who have sacrificed everything to keep the peace of the nation. The constitution and the service instructions give the head of the police administration the power to do that. However, policies that have the tendency to stifle the growth of junior members of the police service should be looked at critically. Policies that suppress and oppress the development of personnel who have dedicated their lives to serve mother Ghana in the wake of threats and risks one has to go through in every day policing should be put under proper scrutiny. We should consider the ripple effects on the service in particular and that of the nation as a whole now and in the future.
Like I have said already, nobody is against the police service enlisting graduates to join the service but it would have been better if the police administration does a cost and benefit analysis of enlisting graduates from outside the police versus internal recruitment. The two should be compared and be contrasted by taking cost cutting into consideration. Human resource experts will always tell you that it is cheaper to do internal recruitment than recruiting from outside your organization. Something is definitely missing in the human resource management and administration of the service and we must all admit it.
Currently the police service runs an 8 year study leave policy whereby thousands of police officers have tried all possible means to get study leave but their efforts have proved futile. Just imagine these police officers waking up to hear that despite their unsuccessful efforts to get approved study leave, avenues or opportunities have been given to others outside the service to come with their degrees to join the service at their expense. Is that fair and just? Is the police administration intentionally trying to create a ‘society of ignoramuses’ among the junior ranks or what? I am yet to believe that.
Currently, it is only the police service which seems to be backward in terms of personnel development and growth particularly among the junior ranks. The world is changing and literacy levels among the populace keep rising but the police service is still interested in running the service on the capacities of personnel some of whom are stark illiterates and semi-illiterates popularly known as escorts in police circles. It is considered felonious treason to upgrade yourself in the police service without study leave whilst study leave itself is the most scarce commodity in the police service currently. How do we then meet the growing needs of the vast majority of the Ghanaian population who are growing their intelligence and faculties as far as policing is concerned? This Captain Glover’s style of human resource management and administration should be looked at again. With effective human resource management information systems, all the graduates in the police service can be mopped up without much difficulty.
Some of us managed to get certificates without being on study leave even though it seems to be a crime in the police service but we are using the same knowledge we acquired at our personal cost to practice better policing. We are clearing the perception that the junior ranks are bunches of ignoramuses and zombies who do not know their left from their right. We have grown in confidence when we meet the lawyers, teachers, nurses, doctors, the professors and whatever personalities you can think of when discharging our duties. We no longer fear personalities and titles which intimidate many police officers when discharging our mandated constitutional duties. We are defending our charges in open courts and speaking impeccable English wherever we find ourselves to the glory of Ghana Police Service and to the admiration of the general public. We are very good at our work now and have become better persons than when we joined the police service. What prevents the police from considering its own first given the cheap cost that it comes with ?
In these times, graduate enlistment into the police service without consideration for young and aspiring junior ranks first has the tendency of breeding corruption and perpetuating the heinous crimes that have been bedeviling the police service lately. It also stands the chance of breeding indiscipline and undermining authority in the police service. It has the chance of delaying promotions among both the senior and junior ranks of the service. Already promotion takes 5 to 6 years instead of the statutory 4 years as stated by the C. I 76 based on vacancies available.
It seems to be a calculated attempt and grand scheme to ensure that junior ranks of the service who even may get the chance to enter senior officers rank do not rise above Chief Superintendent levels or at most Assistant Commissioner of Police and retire there compared to their counterparts who start from graduate levels and rise to become Commissioners of Police and eventually becomes IGPs. It is a grand scheme that will lead the police service to nowhere other than chaos considering the the number of graduates springing up in the police service every day despite strict regulations to restrain them.
It is increasingly becoming obvious that some of us do not have a future in the police service. The service is making itself a stepping stone for many considering the frustration that graduates in the police service are made to go through. As for me, I am warming up to go into politics and should I become the president someday, I will be in position to appoint the IGP. When that time comes, I will overhaul the Ghana Police Service from the top to the bottom. For now, I am ready to bear all punishment, transfers, intimidation and possibly dismissal because I will always talk about the unfairness and the injustices in the Police Service.
I am still at Peki and haven’t gone anywhere.
It’s time to biegya!!!!!
Ahanta Apemenyimheneba Kwofie III
[email protected]
#Ahantadiaries2016_09_03