A UN police commander just said on Al Jazeera that they are training the local police in Timor L’Este to take over law and order duties. He said it took one generation to achieve such a thing.
This brought my mind to the Ghanaian police and the changes it needs right here right now. It should also take one generation, no? One generation should it take to shake off the mentality it acquired post-colonially, and everything else. I'm talking about the bribery, the poorly investigated cases and the bullying.
All education, training, regeneration should take at least one generation to change things developmentally. How long is a Ghanaian generation? Twenty-five years? Maybe thirty. We best start finding that transformational education now.
Nana,
ReplyDeleteI think a Ghanaian generation is thirty years. That's how long its going to take to change the Ghanaian mindset, myself included. The change needs to start from the top and trickle down to you and I. And from where I'm sitting, well, I don't see it happening anytime soon. My friends say I'm a pessimist. Me, I just think I'm being a realist.
This is easy to solve if we have the will. Every police who takes bribe is sacked. Anyone at whose post 'things' get lost is sacked. Proper logistics be provided so that if they fail to execute their duty, they are sacked. Sack anyone who fails to perform or under-performs. That's it. We are afraid of sacking people. Train, equip and sack.
ReplyDeleteRecent events in the Arab world have showed us that change can come from the people (bottom-up)... having the collective will is most important, and it can be a single generation or cross-generational. If people can topple whole regimes, i don't see how we cannot dissolve our police force and reorganize.
ReplyDeleteWe are very far into the second generation of Ghanaians...and its actually getting worse. Maybe the third generation!
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