Features
Wrong recruitment a danger to the Ghanaian society
Agatha is a beautiful young lady who had a dream of becoming a Medical Doctor. However, things became financially difficult for her due to the passing away of her Dad at Senior High School (SHS) 2 since there was no Free SHS Policy in place at the time.
In her final year, she realised that her dream of going to pursue medicine at the university had to be modified.
She decided to pursue nursing after SHS contrary to her original plan since there was policy of payment of allowance, which would greatly help her to overcome her financial challenges, which involved supporting her mom to assist her younger siblings who were in SHS.
Agatha qualified as a nurse and was employed by the Ghana Health Service and posted to one of the hospitals in the country. Although qualified as a nurse, her passion for the job was not strong enough and, therefore, her attitude in providing care left much to be desired.
There are a lot of Agathas’ in our health facilities. An effective recruitment programme into the nursing fraternity would have easily identified that Agatha was not cut out for the job.
Joe was a SHS leaver but his character was nothing to write home about at school and at home. Everybody in the community knew that he was a wee smoker.
He was involved in a lot of disciplinary issues at school but because his uncle was an influential politician, he managed to intervene on the several instances that Joe fell foul of the school regulations.
Within a year after leaving school, he was drafted into the police service without any proper background check. Joe went through the recruits training and some months later he passed out as full-fledged policeman whose moral upbringing was not cut out for the work he found himself in.
Joe is now officially clothed with the authority to use “reasonable” force where necessary and are you surprised when a journalist gets brutalised for taking a picture of a policeman who is apparently breaking the law? Are you surprised when hard drugs kept in police custody suddenly turns into a harmless substance? Are you surprised when armed robbers are arrested and some of them are identified as policemen? There are Joes’ in the security forces.
When we were growing up in the late 60s and early 70s, teachers were the embodiment of discipline. They were our role models and commanded such a huge respect in both the schools and among the general public. They were at the top of the list of opinion leaders and seldom would you hear of a teacher involved in some scandal.
What is happening now in the educational sector concerning teachers, has tarnished the enviable reputation they used to enjoy during our days. It has been scandal upon scandal. A case was reported recently, of a teacher who had impregnated a Junior High School (JHS) student at Amasaman in the Greater Accra Region and an attempt to abort the pregnancy, resulted in the destruction of the womb of the girl.
Again, the reasons behind such behaviours are not hard to find. Some people are now in the teaching field not because they have passion for the teaching profession but largely due to economic pressure.
The stories we hear of that boggles the mind, especially those of us who have been around for a long time in this country, can be attributed to the recruitment systems in place. There is a popular phrase in computer industry known as “gigo” that is garbage in-garbage out.
The outcome of the ineffective recruitment in the various civil and public services is the manifestation of decadent behaviour we are witnessing. As the saying goes, “a leopard can never change its spots”.
The character formed in a person is very difficult to change and this must guide people in authority in fashioning out a policy for recruitment into the various government institutions.
There must be a holistic approach towards the way people are recruited. There has to be a total review of how interviews are conducted for selection into the various institutions.
There should be a psychological review aspect of the process where people are tested or examined to determine their character in terms of morality. There should be a process which applicants must go through for the determination of their real intention, in applying for the job. This would help in determining suitability of applicants so that those who really love the particular profession they are applying for are selected.
It is not only the government institutions that as a society we should worry about. The profession of men in clerical must also engage our attention. It is a fact that the pastors are not employees of government institutions but they play a very vital role in shaping the mindset of people and, therefore, the society.
They serve as a moral compass for the society and their actions must be brought under close scrutiny given the negative reports emanating from their ranks. There is a clamour for their actions to be regulated by the state.
A Moderator of one of the leading religious denominations was on TV last Sunday disagreeing to this call for regulating the activities of pastors but rather calling for pastors to be treated as individuals, and that those who fell foul of the law be dealt with according to the law.
Taking into account the number of incidents involving pastors who are not under any structured religious denomination, it must be of concern to any right thinking member of the society. These one-man church pastors are not accountable to anyone.
They allocate titles to themselves and whether they actually received a call from God or it was just a “flash”, you and I were not there so we cannot tell. A lot of them are what I call ‘spiritual entrepreneurs’; they are in for just money. It is a business enterprise to them and not any desire to win souls for God, so morality is thrown to the dogs.
A national dialogue can be initiated by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), the Christian Council, The Muslim Council, The Peace Council, The Civil Service, Civil Society Organisations and other relevant stakeholders to fashion out a policy for recruitment into various government organisations and screening of potential pastors and even non-governmental organisations and businesses.
This is one of the surest ways to eliminate or reduce corruption, because if someone pays a bribe to be given a job, it is an investment which he or she would find means to recover. It would also ensure that the right people in terms of real passion for the particular job are recruited. The so called protocol selection must cease, otherwise the inequality in our society would never end.
A first step would be the consideration of the use of IT which would eliminate human interference as much as possible, so that the selection would be done by computers, based on defined selection criteria just like the one for selection into the universities and senior high schools.
The Average Citizen
Features
Another opportunity is available
Another celebration of Easter, which is associated with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Saviour of the world, has just gone by.
This is not the first time such a celebration has taken but it has been celebrated each year, ever since I was old enough to appreciate things happening around me.
During the festivities, many people become holy and begin to rededicate their lives to God, through his beloved son Jesus. Many people make resolutions about how they are going to become committed to God, how they are going to change the way they have been living their lives and change for the better, how they are going to demonstrate love to their neighbours etc.
Give them say three months and you will find them forgetting about the resolutions they made. Those of us who belong to this group, a new opportunity has now been offered for us, so we can stick to our resolutions.
Easter has always been a time of reflection, especially for Christians. It is a time for stock taking to see where we stand with our faith in our creator and our status as to where we are on our walk with God and therefore his son, Jesus Christ.
It is a period in which the death of Christ takes on a deeper meaning and the significance of it becomes very much appreciated. It affords believers an opportunity to critically reassess our lives and to read just our way of life, so we could still be on the narrow path to heaven.
During the Easter period, an atmosphere of divine visitation can be felt by those who are spiritually inclined. Testimonies abound of miraculous encounters during Easter seasons.
Watching the Passion of Christ movie after church last Sunday, I really experienced a deeper connection to the suffering that Christ endured from when he was taken to Pontius Pilate up to when he said “It is finished’’ on the cross.
On the social front, it is a great time for reconnecting with members of our families, a time of reconnecting with friends, contributing to the development of our local communities etc.
This is the time when those who are outside the country, come home to interact with family members especially their parents, who they have not interacted with face-to-face for a long time.
It is true that due to technological advancement it is now possible to interact with friends and family but it is not the same as face to face interaction. There is the disturbing side to this celebration which requires that efforts be made to cause attitudinal change.
Some people see this occasion as an avenue for promiscuity and all they look forward to is an opportunity to get someone to sleep with, despite the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV.
If we want to see improvement in our lives both spiritually and physically, then we must prayerfully consider the resolutions we make now, so that God will grant us the grace and determination to achieve them. Let us focus a bit more on the spiritual than the physical.
Let us plan on how to improve say our prayer life, how to manifest the gifts of the spirit and not how to get the latest vehicle, and things of that nature.
The Bible exhorts that we should seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all other things that we need, shall be given to us, according to Matthew 6:33. Instead of going by this directive, we usually turn it upside down and seek what we perceive us our needs first before seeking that of God, no wonder things usually do not turn out the way we expect. God bless.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
Features
Who knows tomorrow?
Recently a friend posted a sad news on his Facebook page, announcing the death of a school mate who had passed away, suddenly. The report had it that he was on his way to the airport to take a flight to Ghana.
I am sure this man had already informed the wife or a friend or a work colleague at work that he was returning home but he was not to return as a human being but as a dead body.
Such is life and so we need to be circumspect in how we go about things in life. The Bible reminds us that we are like grass which at one point in time looks elegant and the next moment becomes withered according to Psalm 90:5 and 6. It is for this reason that we need to guard our hearts with the word of God so that we shall be motivated to do the right thing, at all times.
This will enable us live on this planet, free from all sorts of troubles in our personal lives, even if we ignore the question of Heaven and Hell. Living a disciplined life delivers us from any kind of trouble as the Bible declares in Galatians 5:23 that against such there is no law.
The uncertainty surrounding our lives on earth is the more reason why people should commit their lives into the hands of the one who created it, in the first place unless you believe that the world created itself and that it appeared from nowhere.
Otherwise, the logical thing to do is to recognize the authority of the creator and surrender to his Lordship. Heaven is real and Hell is real, so for us who know the truth and have received Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, the onus lies on us to encourage our relations who have not believed and received Jesus into their lives, to do so.
We are a couple of days from another Easter Resurrection celebration and an opportunity to reflect on our lives in relation to the significance of Easter. In the Bible, the only occasion Jesus, Saviour of the world commands us to celebrate is his death and resurrection.
He never commanded his followers to celebrate his birth but like everything else, we chose to ignore Jesus’s instructions and decided to do what pleases us, just like our forefather and mother in the Garden of Eden.
Let us deliberately choose to do things differently as Christians this Easter, so we can really benefit from all the blessings that the celebration of the death and birth of Jesus, has on offer. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is definitely insanity.
I choose to be different this Easter and I am believing God for a newness of life so God’s glory would be revealed in me to draw the unsaved to him. It is only when people especially the unsaved, see the character of Christ in us, that they can be convinced about the authenticity of Jesus, as Saviour of the world, who can bring transformation in their lives too.
This is what would motivate them to surrender their lives to Jesus Christ. Let us make this Easter a memorable one that will be cherished for a long time. It is also a period for reconciliation and it would be great if in the spirit of Easter, we would try to reach out to those who have wronged us or have a grudge against us.
This would demonstrate that we have indeed accepted Jesus and that our religious posture is not a sham. May the good Lord grant us the grace to love our neighbours as ourselves, demonstrating the love of God in the process.
Those who have lost their loved ones and Easter brings sad memories, may the good Lord comfort and strengthen you. God bless.
.NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
