President of the Institute for Security, Disaster and Emergency Studies, Dr Ishmael Norman, has said the Interior Minister Muntaka Mubarak needs to be applauded over the security recruitment.
Dr Ishmael Norman hailed the Interior Minister for choosing merit over politics in the ongoing security recruitment.
According to Dr Ishmael Norman, the approach represents a major departure from the political culture that influences recruitment in Ghana.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Wednesday, Dr Ishmael Norman stated, “I think we need to applaud the minister of interior for being a moral politician and a moral leader, trying to do the selection based upon meritocracy.”
“This, for me, is the first time I’m seeing this kind of thing happen in Ghana, and I am totally immersed with admiration for them. It’s a very difficult choice-making and decision-making process, but I believe that the minister and the committee are still going about it the right way.”
Dr Ishmael Norman added, “So that if they do it in phases, then they are able to accommodate more people, considering the budget, the financial implications involved in every single person that you hire.”
“And so I think, without going into too much detail, again, the minister is on the right path. Meritocracy is not what Ghanaians want.”
“Ghanaians, whether they are NDP or NDC, they want, you know, identity politics, no patrimonialism.”
“You push people in because your party is in power, that’s what they want. It’s very, very difficult to go against the grain of the moral behaviour of the society. But they are on the right path. They should do the right thing… And in the end, victory will again be on the part of the NDC.”
His comments follow the Minister for the Interior, who had stressed that the introduction of the aptitude test was to prevent the unfair practice of having 400,000 people pay for medicals for a space of 5,000.
According to the Interior Minister, the pass mark of the aptitude exams was 65, which has 105,000 applicants qualifying for medicals.
Addressing a press briefing on Wednesday, March 11, made this known to the public, revealing that only 5000 applicants out of 105,000 qualified for medicals will be recruited.
Speaking to the media, Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka stated, “So, if you do that, are you fair to the average Ghanaian? Remember, all these stages, apart from buying the voucher to be able to apply, body selection does not require payment; documentation does not require payment; the aptitude test does not require payment, but medicals will require payment.
“And in order not to shortchange innocent young people, it is better you put in a mechanism that will reduce the number drastically, because once a person goes to pay, I mean, I know the military, when they were done, the medicals alone were about 1,600.
“We are also doing even mental health assessments, and we’re also doing drug tests in addition. Yes, I know the deputy, and I were just in a meeting, and we’re insisting that despite all these additions, the price will still not be very high, looking at the numbers that we are talking about.
“Are you going to allow over 400,000 people to go and do medicals when you know you have space for 5,000? How fair is it to the people? So, you need to devise a method where you slow down the number and have some reasonable figures. So, the pass mark was put at 65, because that was what they were told before they even started the exams,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ghanaian media personality, Saddick Adams, has said NO Ghanaian should be charged any application fees to serve in a security service, only for 90% to be disqualified.
In a post he wrote, “I insist that NO Ghanaian should be charged any application fees to serve in a security service, only for 90% to be disqualified.
Charging your citizens seeking employment? These public institutions have annual budgets and must entail cost of recruitment.
The practice is extremely wrong on all fronts and nothing but plain exploitation!!”