Professionalism of Security corrupted - CDD-Ghana

Accra, Oct. 27, GNA - Dr. Baffour Agyeman-Duah, Associate Director of Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) on Monday said the professionalism of security officers in the country have been corrupted with over politicisation of the military.

He said, in addition to that, "the problem is the tragic experiences of military coup d'etats that equally corrupted the security agencies and made them unwanted allies of any new government.

"By the wretched and uncertain political past; the personnel have suffered and perhaps continue to suffer as a result," Dr Agyeman-Duah stated at the beginning of a three-day public colloquium in Accra. The colloquium under the theme, "Towards Smooth Democratic Regime Transitions in Ghana," is being organised by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and the CDD-Ghana.

Dr Agyeman-Duah noted that the politicisation of the military was closely tied to the problem of national security and how citizens and governments have suffered as result of its misapplication. To most Ghanaians, the notion is an inscrutable subject that evokes fear and painful memories, having suffered untold abuses and official acts of impunity at the hands of authoritarian governments and military dictatorships that rationalised and justified such acts in the name of national security.

He said the situation justifies the sense for any new government to quickly overhaul the agencies to make sure that trusted friends were put in charge.

With the numerous changes in governments, therefore, Dr Agyeman-Duah said, one could easily see how the ranks of security personnel got decimated; stressing that in the process, the best and the brightest get destroyed and the agencies have to be constantly rebuilt. Dr Agyeman-Duah, who was speaking on the topic, "Transfer of the Security Sector," noted that the sudden removals of security chiefs create a temporary vacuum, where officers become inactive as a result of politicisation.

Such removals, if not based on professional misconduct but purely on political grounds breed despondency that affects not only the command structure, but the rank and file as well.

Dr. Agyeman-Duah noted that displacement of personnel on political grounds also sharpened the divide in the services and developed the, "we pro-government" against "them anti-government" syndrome, adding, "any security agency so divided is dangerous."

The new "chiefs" would regard the new government as their own and would alienate all the experienced officers, who served the outgoing government. Those displaced and aggrieved only bid their time as they expressed private sympathies with the opposition and hoped to regain standing with the fall of the incumbent government.

The CDD Ghana Associate Director noted that another risk for the unprofessional wholesale displacement of security officers was that another adventurer could exploit the vacuum that was created.

On the issue of protecting a newly-elected President, Dr Agyeman-Duah said the precise nature of security, at what point they should receive it and where such security be provided, had not been settled as well as the transfer of security in regime transition.

Dr Agyeman-Duah said, "if presidential candidates deserve a measure of state protection, then a President-Elect, who is a President-in-being deserved even greater security protection than the out-going President. "In my view, a president-elect is more vulnerable to assault, especially after a gruelling electoral battle and the possibility of sour grapes among opponents, thus state security should immediately see to his full and complete protection as a matter of routine, once the Electoral Commission announced the verdict".

Other speakers included, Major General Nii Carl Coleman, Commandant of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College and Mr K. B. Quantson, Former National Security Co-ordinator, whilst Professor Fred T. Sai past President of GAAS, presided. 27 Oct. 03