Ignore Desperate Politicians, Be Professional

The Ghana Armed Forces to aid the police to provide much needed security during the 2016 elections

Today the military high command would engage with the media to jaw-jaw over the forthcoming general elections in which officers and men would support the civilian Police to provide the much needed internal security.

Sincerity and professionalism from the military and the Police has never been so critical.

The country is without doubt at crossroads as the choice of a President from among a long list is going to be actuated through an election. The stakes are as high as the level of impunity by, especially, the ruling party extremists who draw their authority to breach the law from irresponsible political godfathers on the corridors of power.

Under the prevailing circumstances, calling a spade a spade would help us arrive at the desired goal of witnessing an election with minimal breaches of the law.

We would chalk a wonderful score in our democracy test when the general election obstacle is surmounted with negligible breaches. Unfortunately, the Police have already been marked down as being selective in the enforcement of the law when politicians are involved.

When the maiden military/media engagement was organized, we had cause to congratulate the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Air Marshal Michael Samson-Oje for thinking out the programme.

Reaching out to the people of Ghana through the media at such crucial times is an exercise which should not be downplayed: the reason we doffed our hats for the military high command especially when they expressed their commitment towards ensuring that the general election passes off peacefully. When the elections are due, we shall test their commitment and professionalism anyway.

It was unsurprising therefore that the Police decided to replicate the programme because being the main internal security management agency they too must be seen to be working towards a peaceful election. Unfortunately, their programme was overshadowed by the IGP's faux pas when he threatened a social media shutdown on Election Day. Expectedly, the media brought that aspect of the programme to front burner and relegated the essence of the meeting to the back burner.

The pockets of security breaches fueled by a nauseating impunity from ruling party activists, as the Police look elsewhere, has created a worrying schism between many Ghanaians and the law enforcers. It is our prayer that this loss of confidence in the civilian police by most Ghanaians, especially when political issues are on the table, does not affect the military too.

For many years, the military have been regarded as more professional than the police – the latter being easily manipulated by politicians at the helm.

The use of excessive force is not the best option in some circumstances. This is an important factor which those deployed for such duties must consider especially in a country where most citizens are frustrated.

During the last engagement, the military invited their police counterparts to join them. We think that today's would not be an exception. As they sit in solidarity with the military, they should listen with rapt attention and appreciate the importance of sincerity and professionalism in law enforcement.

We wish to tell the military not to have too much confidence in the civilian police as they engage in joint operations because persons like Chief Superintendent Hamza Yakubu and many at the headquarters are hell bent on being unprofessional.

Yesterday, he was responding to a charge from a politician and many wondered why a serving superior officer would be so uncouth.

It is this crop of cops that the IGP would unleash on the streets that would make the job of the military rather difficult. It is our hope that what the media is being told by the military- commitment to Ghana and not to a regime- is the truth and nothing but the truth.