Kwesi Aning To Security Agencies: Being Short, Having Dreadlocks, Tattoo Do Not Affect Institutional Performance

The Director, Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) has decried the disqualification of applicants into the security services based on height, dreadlocks and tattoo among others.

 

Speaking on Joy FM‘s Super Morning Show on Thursday, Prof Kwesi Aning said these physical features, including stammering, do not affect institutional performance.

“I stammer. So does that make me a bad officer in the Ghana Armed Forces? Because I stammer, will customs have said no? Because I stammer, will Immigration have said no? Or will the National Intelligence Bureau have said no because I stammer? No.”

 

“Does being short, limit your capacity to do the analysis? The answer is a resounding no,” he stressed

The Security Analyst said he does not have any problem with security agencies enforcing the rules and regulations consistently.

“But when citizens feel that the rules and regulations governing the institutional cultures themselves are fiddled, undermined and thrown away when it suits particular situations and particular interests groups, then I began to shudder and to wonder about the survivability of those institutions themselves.”

“Sometimes I have this sense that as a nation we have multiple rules and regulations for particular sets of people. We have seen people in military style uniform or police style uniform who have tattoos, who have beards, who have ponytails. So where are these people coming from? Who recruited them into those services? Or are there secret rules we don’t know,” he asked.