Security recruitment brouhaha: 'If everyone becomes police, who will be the thief?' – Asiedu Nketia quizzes
The National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has raised concerns over the growing number of young people seeking to join Ghana’s security services, suggesting that the trend reflects deeper challenges in the job market.
His comments follow revelations by the Minister for the Interior, Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka, that more than 105,000 applicants have progressed to the medical stage of the ongoing security services recruitment exercise, despite only around 5,000 positions being available for final enlistment.
Using a childhood analogy, Asiedu Nketia highlighted what he described as the imbalance in the number of people aspiring to become police officers. “When we were children, we used to play police and thief,” he said. “We never played police and police. At every point, someone had to be the police and another had to be the thief.”
He questioned how such a large number of people could all aspire to join the police service at the same time. “How can 500,000 people say they want to be police? If they all become police, who will become the thief? If there are no thieves, what will be the essence of the police?” he asked.
According to Asiedu Nketia, the surge in applications for security jobs underscores the intense competition for limited employment opportunities in the country.