The sad loss of young, precious lives during a stampede at the El Wak Stadium last week, at a military recruitment event, rightly evoked howls of anger and disappointment from many.
One would have thought that the military, in particular, as a structured, disciplined and orderly institution, would find organising such an event a stroll in the park.
What happened was tragic, needless and inexcusable.
Humane treatment?
In the 21st century, it is mind-boggling that the Ghana Armed Forces would decide that congregating over 21,000 individuals in a single space for the purposes of a recruitment exercise is appropriate and effective.
The scenes of these desperate applicants sitting in the scorching sun, with military personnel wielding batons and sticks and towering over them as if they were vicious criminals rounded up, clearly looked absurd and bordered on sadism, in my view.
Perhaps there is a cultural notion somewhere within the military that if one aspires to join the institution, then one must be ‘toughened up’ even before being recruited, because being a soldier is not a tea party, and if you cannot sit in the sun and brave the elements for long hours, you are probably a wimp who should go home.
After all, ‘their predecessors went through it and did not die’ must be the conventional wisdom. Maybe it is meant as a tool to prune the numbers.
I hope I am wrong. If this is so, it is an unfortunate mindset. Of course, after recruitment, it is perfectly legitimate to subject trainees to gruelling training because, indeed, it is not a tea party.
Indeed, some decades ago, I once decided that I would love to join the UK’s Royal Air Force and strolled into a recruitment centre in central London to make inquiries.
After a few minutes watching a video clip of gruelling basic military training, I quietly made my way out, and my dreams died a natural death.
But what does it take to provide canopies, chairs and a proper queuing system for the applicants, similar to what one finds in the banking halls, with a proper ticketing system, particularly when they have each forked out the princely sum of GH¢200 just to access application forms?
In times past, there was public outcry over the shambolic treatment meted out to visa applicants, who had to turn up at the embassies at dawn to get ahead in the queues, exposed to the elements and without as much as a bench to sit on.
The outcry was justified, and in many cases, this was improved upon. Yet, against our own kith and kin, there have not been much more than mere whimpers in the past.
Let’s go modern
Some have suggested that the process could have been staggered to allow the applicants to appear in batches.
For the Accra event in particular, there are other venues in the capital, such as the Trade Fair Site, Borteyman Sports Complex, University of Ghana Stadium and the Accra Sports Stadium to facilitate a spreading out of the 21,000 applicants and thence reduce the pressure on that single venue.
I fundamentally disagree with this, for the sole reason that in this day and age, there is absolutely no need for a physical massing up of applicants of any significant numbers, especially in the early stages of the application process.
In terms of completing application forms, submission of academic certificates and verification of same, there is no reason these cannot be done online.
Aptitude tests, if any, can be conducted at designated centres across the country, as is done with the teacher licensure examinations.
On physical and medical assessments, it should be possible for the various regional hospitals to serve as accredited centres for these to be done on behalf of the Ghana Armed Forces and forwarded to them.
After all, with UK visa applications that require tuberculosis tests, these are conducted by accredited third parties in the country on behalf of the UK Home Office, and the applicant uploads them with other relevant documents to a dedicated portal. There are always best practices to learn from.
Applicants can be updated via text messages at each stage. Ultimately, only a small group that passes through the various stages can be invited for fitness and endurance steps, as the final steps towards recruitment.
As someone rightly remarked on Facebook the other day, if the British Army can recruit soldiers from Africa and the Caribbean without sweat, it should not be impossible for their Ghanaian counterparts to recruit without massing up large numbers of applicants.
Bigger elephant in room
A fundamental, wider issue in all of this is the brutal reality of youth unemployment in our country, judging by the sheer numbers of 60,000 or so applicants nationwide competing for just a few thousand slots.
The desperation and frustration on the faces of many young people, who thronged these centres in the hope of making it to the next stage of the recruitment process, spoke volumes.
I am told many graduates conceal their university qualifications in the hope of being selected for the junior ranks, because the officer ranks offer very limited entry opportunities.
At the end of the day, earning an income and survival are the key determinants for applying for particular jobs at particular levels.
As a country, it is imperative that we find urgent solutions to this near-perennial problem before it blows up in our collective faces, because it is indeed a security issue.
Tragic, inexcusable outcome
Perhaps it is of some comfort that the Minister for the Interior, Muntaka Mubarak, has announced the rollout of a centralised e-recruitment portal, aimed at harmonising and streamlining the hiring process across all agencies under the Ministry of the Interior.
Hopefully, out of the ashes of this tragedy, the military top brass will learn useful lessons and make it safer and more convenient for people to apply to serve their nation. Looking for work to keep body and soul together need not be a death trap.
May the souls of the departed ladies rest in peace.
Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng.
E-mail: rodboat@yahoo.com
