Member of Parliament for Wa West Constituency, Peter Lanchene Toobu, has issued a terse warning that unless enlistment into the security services is refined, recruits would eventually become the source of insecurity for the state.
According to him, because of the unfairness of the recruitment system people who know they have a slim chance of making the grades use shortcuts and connections to get in.
He said, “Take for instance 100,000 applicants for the Ghana Police Service and only 5,000 are going to be recruited. The probability of somebody getting in is 0.05%.”
“The probability of becoming a police officer in this current recruitment is just 5%. So when people look at their chances that are so slim, they begin to search for shortcuts.”
Hon. Lanchene Toobu was contributing to a discussion on recruitment into the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) and the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) on TV3’s Key Points on Saturday.
He disclosed that he has received many calls from potential recruits and their parents appealing to him to use ‘his connections as a former police officer’ to get them enlisted.
He noted that today recruitment into the security services has gone beyond the age-old mantra ‘Whom you know’ and has degenerated to a point that it is now ‘who knows you.’
“The current development is that some ‘big’ person just calls somebody and tells them to bring their certificate because he wants to slot them somewhere in a recruitment exercise. It is about who knows you,” he added.
Hon. Toobu warned unless there is a unified clarion call against the development and a definite statement that the situation is offending the collective conscience of the Ghanaian and not the way to develop, the worse would happen.
He warned that those who use people in power to get recruited should remember power is transient and those who pushed them in would eventually leave.
He said, “You’re not supposed to be a police officer, the police are quiet. You’re not supposed to be an immigration officer and they are also quiet because there is somebody in power who insists that it must be done.”
“That power is transient. One day when the person leaves, I am telling you as a person with over 25 years experience, you will struggle in the system till you get frustrated, and maybe resign,” he added.
He stressed that those who use connections and the influence of ‘big’ people to get enlisted into the security service, the system will eject them eventually because they are not qualified to be there.
Source:MyPublisher24.com/Osumanu Al-Hassan
