Why Mr. David Asante Appeatu Should Be Given Extension Of Tenure Of Office As The IGP

It's an opinion so you can assert to my position on the subject matter or dispute it but it's a motion that should be argued objectively and not with inflamed passions based on personal interests. Let us all maintain the shine on this subject matter as we argue our points out with much decorum.

In my candid opinion, Mr. David Asante Appeatu the current IGP should stay a little longer for the following reasons;

i. formulation of new strategic policies based on the transformation agenda

ii. sustainability of the strategic policy based on the transformation agenda within two years if his tenure of office is extended

iii. evaluation, monitoring and control of the said policies, measure its effect and impact on the police service in particular and Ghana in general before he leaves office.

iv. the police service will get the opportunity to take a fresh breath by the time Mr. David Asante Appeatu leaves office compared to 6 months tenure of office our IGPs have been staying in office in recent times.

I have always hated extension of contracts in any form or shape in public offices particularly in the police where people have rose to become Commissioners of Police and eventually becoming IGPs and still want contracts. It retards the progress of the police service, breeds undermining and conflict of power struggle in the police which eventually affects the common police officer but not those who actually struggle for power. It prevents the opportunity to test the competences of other capable police officers who have the capabilities to turn around the fortunes of the service if given the opportunity.

The fact also is what change can't Commissioners of Police who have been director-generals of schedules or portfolios in the police effect but rather will wait till they are appointed as IGPs before? What were their commitments when others were IGP? I don't know whether it's the 1 or 2 years and sometimes 6 months in that office that can make them change the police service with a magic wand but the fact is that they always leave office without significant impact on the common police officer. If you are type that can do something better for the police service, we will see even if you are a Constable but not when you have reached a Commissioner of Police and is about to go on retirement before struggling for the position of the IGP.

In fact, some of the IGPs rather come and compound the burden of the common police officer so we have found ourselves in a service that the ordinary police officer finds it very difficult to get a decent accommodation coupled with intense logistical constraints. IGPs have come to office and gone yet the police service is still logistically constrained more than ever but among all of them in recent times is Mr. David Asante Appeatu who has been bold enough to admit that indeed the police service lacks the needed logistics to combat the rising sophisticated crimes. He has shown a commitment to work on it so it is logically reasonable to see him him working on it than a new IGP who also has 6 months or 1year to retire.

I don't know Mr. David Asante Appeatu and have not received any favours from him as a police officer so nobody can say I am doing a bid for him. I am only expressing an opinion as I am notoriously known for. Sometimes my opinions favour them and at times it hits them hard to an extent that they want to hung me on the gallows but that is me. I am always living on "no man's land" so I say my views and opinions as how I see things in the police. Article 21 of 1992 Constitution backs me so I have no fears and worries at all.

The very first time that I saw Mr. David Asante Appeatu in person was when I was matched before him for writing my open letter to the president on 8th June 2017 concerning donations he made to the family of late Major Maxwell Adama Mahama. He is a very calm and composed man who himself had suffered a lot of injustices, victimisations and vindictiveness despite being a senior police officer. We all know what Mr. David Asante Appeatu went through prior to his appointment as an IGP so I am not the one to elaborate on it. He gave me few words of cautions and asked them to match me off. I eventually landed a transfer from the police headquarters to Abokobi after I had just been transferred to the police headquarters in just one month from Peki in the Volta Region.

Here is what it is, we have just had an IGP who spent some six months in office in the person of Mr. John Kudalor and as to whether he did something meaningful in the police as an IGP, we are all witnessing it but some of us can still question that what at all did Mr. John Kudalor do for the police service during his tenure of office as the IGP? Just six months in office, the government changed and he left and here is Mr. David Asante who also had some few months to go on retirement but was also appointed as the IGP. The man has just started to work and here we are, retirement beckons. Immediately Mr. David Asante Appeatu leaves, another person comes and also spends 6 months or maximum 1 year and leaves. No institution that has focus and direction can be operated this way with chances of success.

The problem has never been Mr. David Asante Appeatu or the past IGPs but rather the appointing authorities coupled with unhealthy succession structures in the police mixed with vested political interests. Our mode of appointing the IGPs has never helped us as a service in particular and Ghanaians in general. The position of the IGP has become honour roll that people are only decorated for their long term service as police officers but not necessarily to solve problems confronting the police service. The office of the IGP has become a passing through corridor to personal glories just like the way we use to write on our secondary school walls, "I was here some" or "chop make I chop some" of typical Ghanaians who use positions to better their own lives than the people they are serving.

Due to the mode of appointment of our IGPs, the police service has never been strategic in its operations and policies. No strategic policy for a giant security service like the police can be pursued within 6 months and be implemented successfully so we have police service which is always backtracking instead of progressing because it lacks focus and direction. We still fight sophisticated crimes the traditional way with very obsolete methods and tactics when policing has actually become scientific and mordenised. The last time we heard of strategic policy in the police service was Mr. Paul Tawiah Quaye's time and immediately he left office, that strategic policy was abandoned probably because Mr. Paul Tawiah Quaye folded it up and put it his pocket and went home with it.

By the time Mr. David Asante Appeatu leaves office after extension of tenure office, we will see new faces and new breed of Commissioners of Police who are much younger and likely to serve in that office for a bit longer than 6 months and 1 year our IGPs have been getting in recent times. The extension of tenure office for Mr. David Asante Appeatu should actually seal all forms and shapes of contracts in the police. He should actually be the last apostle of extension of tenure offices and within his period of extension of tenure office, we want to see the change that H.E Nana Akuffo Addo promised during the campaign when it comes succession plan in the police and mode of appointing IGPs. It is the prerogative of the president in consultation with the council of state to appoint IGPs but that should be done with consideration to age and how long one is likely to stay in that office to pursue strategic policies for the overall interest of the police service.

Two years extension of tenure office will make the police service breathe a fresh breath and by the time he leaves the office those old hands who are likely to become IGPs and serve for 6 months or 1 year maximum have already left. We are tired of "dongomi" IGPs who come to glorify themselves but not the police service. The extension of tenure office for Mr. David Asante Appeatu should mark the beginning of sustained strategic policies to give the police service focus and direction and actually the end of all contract IGPs.

It is strategically and politically reasonable for Mr. David Asante Appeatu to stay than to retire him and replace him with another person who also has six months or one year to retire unless the president intends to replace him with someone who has more than two years to serve if appointed as the IGP.

Ahanta Apemenyimheneba Kwofie III
[email protected]
#Ahantadiaries_07_08_17