We have security personnels who cannot read and write – Mahama

Former President John Dramani Mahama has accused the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) of politicising the recruitment of people into the various security agencies.

The flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) alleged that the government has compromised the recruitment process to the point of recruiting unqualified people.

Mahama expressed worry that we currently have people recruited into the various services, including the police service, who cannot read or write.

He described this as a threat to the country and wondered why people without the basic requirements would be recruited.

This came up when he was asked by a young person during his interaction with young people at the Bukom Arena on Monday, August 12, 2024. The young lady had asked him what he would do for young people who had the zeal and strength to join the security services but lacked the basic requirements.

Mahama, in his response, said it was important for interested individuals who want to join our security services to have the basic requirements of reading and writing. Those who do not have these requirements, he assured, would be granted other forms of alternative livelihoods.

To him, the high rate of unemployment is one of the reasons why several young people want to join the security services even though they don’t qualify.

“Even if you have your own business, some amount of education is required to run your own business. If you go to the security services, I know that when the NPP came, they scrapped the qualification requirement for their people to go in. Today, as I sit, there are police officers who can’t go on duty in the station because they can’t enter the station diary.

"So, when you go to the station to file a complaint, they are unable to write anything and have to call other colleagues to help them out. The point is, we do so at our own risk. There are many other areas in which we can recruit people who do not have the qualifications.”

"The reason everybody wants to go into the security services is because there is no employment. If there were other areas where we could employ our people, it would help solve the unemployment situation. He said it was for this reason that the NDC wants to revive the economy of Ghana and build more factories so young people will have more jobs to do."

He maintained that there would be some minimum requirements for those who want to join the security services, so those recruited would be functionally able to carry out the duties assigned to them.