IGP, Others Need Job Security To Overcome Partisan Constraints

Top Police officers like the Inspector General of Police need sufficient job security to enable them to be effective and to overcome the disruption of a change in government, the Dean of Studies and Research at the Institute of Local Government Studies, Dr. Eric Oduro Osae, has said.

As it stands now, Dr. Osae noted on Citi TV’s Point of View that the “change in government weakens the institutions and it becomes difficult for them to be professional.”

His remarks follows reports that the Chief Executive Officer of the Tamale Teaching Hospital, Dr. David Zaawumya Kolbila, was ordered out office by New Patriotic Party (NPP) affiliated-groups.

The activities of pro-government youth groups acting above the law have been a bane on the 20-month old Akufo-Addo administration.

Police action has been seen to be relatively tame towards these groups that operate in the open without fear of arrest.

In the case of Tamale Teaching Hospital, a group calling itself the Concerned NPP Youth Coalition and the Kandahar Boys, has claimed responsibility for the incident.

But no arrests have been made yet.
Dr. Osae is confident that “if we are able to provide security of tenure for the heads of the various security agencies, it will solve the problem.”

“An IGP comes, and anytime there is a change in government, the IGP knows he is on his way out,” he observed.

“If we have the security of tenure and you are appointed as an IGP for a fixed time of eight years or nine years or ten years, you know that come what may, you will be in office. So when you are dealing with the people, you deal with the people without looking back.”

This job security will make it easier for police to even go after corrupt politicians.

“Once we can do that and they know they can survive successive governments… even if you are a minister or a government official, they will chase you because they will not lose their job,” Dr. Osae stated.