A former top government official has fired a sharp broadside at the state over what he describes as a deeply flawed and exploitative security recruitment system, one he says is designed not to find the best candidates, but to squeeze money out of desperate young Ghanaians.
Dr. Henry Kwabena Kokofu, former Chief Executive Officer of the Environmental Protection Agency, did not hold back as he addressed the media, labelling the ongoing internal security recruitment process “daylight robbery” institutionalised by the very state that should be protecting its citizens.
At the heart of his criticism is a glaring mismatch: nearly 500,000 young Ghanaians applied for positions in the internal security services, yet only around 5,000 will ultimately be enlisted. Dr. Kokofu argued that the government knew these numbers all along, and opened the floodgates anyway, compelling applicants to bear application-related costs with virtually no realistic chance of success.
“This is how we have succeeded in institutionalising criminality and extortion from the ordinary poor people,” he said. “These are poor young people who, through no fault of theirs, are eager to serve their country in those various capacities, yet the institutions know exactly how many people they can absorb.”
But the numbers game, he alleged, is only part of the problem. Dr. Kokofu further claimed that the system is riddled with favouritism and protocol placements that quietly eat into the available slots long before ordinary applicants even get a look in. “With the 5,000 slots, I can assure you that about 4,000 will go into protocol, leaving the poor applicant to compete for the remaining 1,000 slots with as many as 500,000 people,” he charged.
His remarks come on the heels of a disclosure by the Minister for the Interior, Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka, who revealed that more than 105,000 applicants have already advanced to the medical screening stage of the recruitment exercise, a figure that underscores just how massive, and many would argue, how cruel, the odds truly are.
For Dr. Kokofu, the conclusion is clear: “Encouraging about 500,000 people to apply when you know very well that only about 5,000 will be taken is robbery and daylight extortion that has been institutionalised by the state.”
Source: Apexnewsgh.com