Our State institutions are weak, unprofessional – Dr Jonah

Ghana’s national interest institutions have become so unprofessional, weak and politically partial, a senior Research fellow with the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr. Kwesi Jonah has said.

Speaking on the topic: “National Interest Institutions and how to strengthen them” at a forum held Friday November 7, 2014 in Accra, Dr Jonah said state institutions like the Police Service, Civil Service, local government service among others must insulate themselves from political interference.

“We can do our NDC-NPP politics, but at the end of the day, there must be the assurance that if I go to a police station, they are not going to look at my party affiliation, they are going to deal with me as a citizen of Ghana,” Dr. Jonah said.

“So you go to a police station, the police must treat you professionally, impartially; you go to the civil service, they must deal with you professionally, impartially and so on and so forth,” he admonished.

According to him, “unfortunately, this is not the situation. Our national institutions have become so weak, so unprofessional, so ineffective that they are not able to deal with us professionally [and] impartially.”

He said apart from the need for these national institutions to stop allowing political interference in their dealings, they must also desist from using people’s ethnic affiliations against them.

The political science lecturer also decried the recruitment of people into these national institutions based on their political affiliations.