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Kwame Nkrumah's
Offsprings Now More Illiterate?: The Case of Ghana
Police
By: Prof Lungu
April
11, 2016
"....Clearly, in 2016, 59
years after Ghana's independence, we would expect the
Ghana Police Service to appreciate the "scientific
reality" that operationally, 100 crimes in Upper West
can never be the same as 100 crimes in the Ashanti
Region..., even if those crimes were all of the same
type, and they each occurred on the same date and
time... Or maybe, IGP Kudalor and the Police Service
want to propose that Ghanaians are so stupid and dumb
they will never appreciate simple and useful metrics..."
(Prof Lungu, 1 Apr 16).
In a comment on Ms. Afua
Amoadu's article about citizen's ratings of their own
political leaders (from Russia to Bolivia, to Ghana,
etc.), Mr. Bond, identified a failing he characterized
as "intellectual deficiency syndrome". Again, this essay
and the series it represents is about leaders with
twisted versions of history and deficit of intellect and
critical-thinking skills. It is about intentionally
cruel, absent-mindedness about the value of transparency
and accountability to the business of the citizens of
Ghana that the political and administrative elites claim
to represent today.
Much
has recently been said, and made, of the error-ridden
Ghana @59 Independence Day Anniversary brochure. Again,
Dr. Omane Boamah and Mr Mahama owe Ghanaians a better
explanation as to who knew what, when, how, why, and how
much.
To the
point: The errors in the brochure are not for the leader
of Kenya to approve, disapprove, or accept, as Mr.
Mahama have sought to transfer acceptance and
responsibility.
But
these essays are not about the single case of
error-ridden brochure. No, the essays are about the
general lack of attention to detail in communicative
media and artifacts by Ghanaian officials at all levels
of power and officialdom, all functionaries paid with
taxes to provide the best in governance for Ghanaians.
In
fact, we spoke briefly about that deficit in our 3-part
series, "Prof. Amoako Baah's Teaching is Almost
Useless". Even today, after vacating as the "Head" of
the Political Science Department at KNUST for reason(s)
unknown, that departments website remains as pathetic as
the week we completed that series back in May, 2015,
when Professor Amoako-Baah was the titular "Head" of
that department.
So,
more often than not, our laughter at gross
"communicative accidents" turns to grief when we
remember that the people responsible for those "errors
and accidents" are the same people representing Ghana at
the highest echelons of international power and
business. Increasingly, those singular "errors and
accidents" have turned into perpetual walls of shame, a
nauseous, fetid pool of non-performance, arrogance,
mis-management, and shirking of responsibility. As a
result, Ghana losses not only prestige, but also
resources, however measured.
Many
times, we've wondered whether only a few Ghanaian
officials at the highest echelons of political and
administrative power actually earned 4-year college
degrees, the equivalent of the bachelor's, worthy of the
parchment paper they were printed on.
Forget about Master degrees!
Forget
about the terminal degrees.
Regularly, we are not sure publications and speeches
approved by many Ghanaians officials reflect on the
probability that those officials took and actually
passed foundation courses in English, History, Biology,
Mathematics, Economics, Psychology, Political Science,
Business, Communications, Law, Sociology, Philosophy,
Geography, Public Administration, and Statistics, etc.,
beyond the typical American/English grade school
curriculum.
So,
tell Ghana, how will those officials understand complex
proposals and issues when they are sitting next to
armies of the best "working stiffs" with Master's and
Ph.D. degrees. You know, "working stiffs" from Canada,
to UK, to France, to China, to India, to Germany, and so
forth. Typically, these professionals come with 10-40
years actual work experience in all manner of modern
government agencies and enterprises, from banking, to
commerce, to the academy, to the military, to law, to
security, oil and gas, to telecommunications, to
politics, to development management, etc.).
Fact is, you simply cannot run
a country professionally in the 21st Century if
officials are weak individually and as groups in all
those basic areas of scholarship, business, information,
and critical thinking.
None
of Mr. Mahama's "Divine Intervention" apply here,
however loud and boastful you may pray!
No "Sika Duro" or Antoa deity
ever worked in the halls of business and government,
except in the minds of the gullible and confused, and
the happy pockets to the pimps of religion and fantasy!
But, there is reality.
And
reality is typically measurable through observation,
data, and analyses!
Even
so, in the eyes of many concerned observers, there is
precious little evidence that when selfless individuals
and other informed "commenters" present "cogent points
borne out of their genuine desires" to see Ghana
develop, that those same officials responsible for
making the most egregious errors and mistakes, do little
more than "listen".
Problem is, there is not even much for us to hang our
hats on, to suppose that mant top echelon officials
actually read the many comments, and even less, that
they act to correct the record the next time around.
Forget about expecting them to
reply to any suggestion/comment.
Take
the case of the Ghana Police Service and their 18 Mar 16
annual "Wassa get-together report" detailing the
incidence of crimes in Ghana, a nation of 27 million
people disaggregated into 10 administrative "Regions".
According to the 2010 census,
there were 702,110 people in Upper West Region, to a
high 4,780,380, in the Ashanti Region.
Clearly, in 2016, 59 years
after Ghana's independence, we would expect the Ghana
Police Service to appreciate the "scientific reality"
that operationally, 100 crimes in Upper West can never
be the same as 100 crimes in the Ashanti Region or any
other Region, even if those crimes were all of the same
type, and they each occurred on the same date and time.
The Ghana Police Service ought
not report those numbers as if they were all the same
nominally. They ought not report those numbers as if
they had equal impact on the work for which they receive
their salaries, as if the impact of those crimes on
citizens' sense of personal safety and goodwill to the
Police Service would be the same in every region, city,
town, and village, etc., with respect to those crimes.
It does not work that way!
So,
when we finished reading the "Wassa" account on several
media, our theory of convenience that practically none
of the officials from the Ghana Police Service probably
took a course in criminal justice, criminology, or basic
statistics, (or passed those courses if they took them),
was confirmed.
According to one report:
"...
Present at the (Wassa) event was the IGP, Mr John
Kudalor...The Ghana Police Service...revealed that it
handled a total of 525 murder cases across the country
in 2015. The figure is lower than the number recorded in
2014 and 2013 – 543 and 551, respectively. With regards
to rape, complaints rose from 484 in 2013 to 514 in
2014, before dipping to 451 in 2015...narcotic cases had
recorded marginal increases...Overall, the general crime
rate reduced by 2.2 per cent in 2015, which recorded
4,715 cases, down from 4,738 in 2014 and 4,845 in
2013...".
Question is, who says what, IGP Kudalor?
Did it
ever occur to the Ghana Police Service that to be useful
in any sense for the period reported, they need to
normalize their raw data by the size of the population
in the aggregate, and by the size of the population in
the various Regions? That is the smart way to make that
type of data useful to Ghanaians and the Ghana Police
Service, itself.
That
is how it is done where there are "scientific-thinking
heads".
Or,
maybe IGP Kudalor and the Ghana Police Service want
argue that the population of Ghana is the same today in
all regions, as it was in 2015, as it was in 2014, as it
was in 2013, as it was in 2012, etc.
Or maybe, IGP Kudalor and the
Police Service want to propose that Ghanaians are so
stupid and dumb they will never appreciate simple and
useful metrics such as, there were:
10
homicides per 1,000 of the population in the entire
country, compared to ____ homicides per 1,000 of the
population in ___ year
25
marijuana arrests, per 1,000 of the population in this
region with Y population, versus _____ per 1,000 of the
population in ___ that Region
100
assaults per 1,000 of the population in this city with Y
population compared to that city, and that city that had
per 1,000 of the population
50
reported cases of bribery by 250 police officer in
Region X, compared to ______ reported bribery cases in
Region Y.
Surely, this is not the first time someone has proposed
this common "scientific" approach by way of a critique
of Ghana Police Service annual "Wassa data" release.
So, what exactly is the
problem with the Ghana Police Service?
Or, is
it that they "listen", a la Mr. Omane Boamah, but that
they just do not care?
When
will the Ghana Police Service stop wasting the Peoples'
time and resources on foolish, uneducated chatter and
reports?
When,
we must ask directly, will the Ghana Police Service
start arresting this nagging, persistent "intellectual
deficiency syndrome"?
Hasn't
Ghana grown up since some among the leadership of the
Ghana Police Service (IGP Nunoo, for example), took up
the traitor banner and deposed Dr. Kwame Nkrumah 59
years ago?
Respectfully, Ghana Police Service "Wassa-Up" mo'
better!
Try
again!
Try
harder!
Then
come again!
So it goes, Ghana!
SOURCES:
1. Afua Amoadu. Mahama
listed among 3 top rated presidents in the world -
Rejoinder, 20 March, 2016.
(http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=424636&comment=12807685/).
2. Ghanaweb. Omane-Boamah breaks silence on
error-ridden brochure, 11 March, 2016,
(http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/
Omane-Boamah-breaks-silence-on-error-ridden-brochure-422611/).
3. 525 murder cases recorded in 2015 – Police, 19
March, 2016. (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/
NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=424538/).
4. Prof Lungu. Prof. Amoako Baah's Teaching is
Almost Useless (1-2.3), 10 May, 2015,
(http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/
features/Prof-Amoako-Baah-s-Teaching-is-Almost-Useless-1-2-3-357578/).
5. Prof Lungu. Ghana's Youth Against Gerontocracy,
Religion, Critical Thinking! 11 May, 2013,
(http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Ghana-s-Youth-Against-Gerontocracy-Religion-Critical-Thinking-273654/).
Join in/Sign on:
Fair-Trade Oil Share Ghana (FTOS-Gh/PSA)
(https://www.change.org/p/ghana-fair-trade-oil-share-psa-campaign-ftos-gh-psa/)
www.GhanaHero.com.
Visit for more information.
(Read Mo! Listen Mo!
See Mo! Reflect Mo!).
©Prof Lungu is Ghana-Centered/Ghana-Proud.
Prof Lungu is based in
Washington DC, USA.
Subj: Kwame Nkrumah's Offsprings Now More
Illiterate?: The Case of Ghana Police Service.
Brought to you
courtesy of www.GhanaHero.com©10 Apr 16.
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