THE
NATIONAL Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) has held discussions with staff
and leadership of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS).
The
discussion, which focused mainly on vigilantism and indiscipline in the
country, saw both institutions share ideas and propose strategies to curb the
menace.
Deputy
Chairman in charge of Finance & Administration, NCCE, Kathlyn Addy, in her address,
stated that vigilantism in the country was growing at a fast rate and that
proper action needed to be taken immediately.
“The
problem is that, because its growing, we have to be concerned. The fact that
the incidents are becoming more and are expanding to the post election period
is a source of great worry for all of us,” she remarked.
Tracing
the root of vigilantism, she said “vigilantism has been there right at the
beginning of the fourth republic.”
Snatching
of the ballot boxes and deployment of party thugs to perpetrate violence at
election areas were all signs of vigilantism in the early days of the fourth
republic.
She
lamented that little or nothing is being done about the menace and its effects
on the development of the nation, saying it should be resisted.
“It’s
as if we have accepted and normalized that as part of our society. We cannot
accept it; we cannot normalize it and we cannot pretend it is okay,” she
stressed.
“This
growing threat is a threat to all. We cannot sit for the next vigilante related
incident to happen before we take action,” she added.
On
indiscipline, she disclosed that beyond political thuggery, there is a general
feeling of indiscipline in our society with ordinary citizens breaking the law
with impunity.
She
also lamented on the incidence of property owners renting their apartments to
foreigners without checking their particulars.
“We
actually have a law enforcement problem, because people can get away with all
kinds of things; others are not deterred from repeating same,” she bemoaned.
On
their part, personnel from GIS stressed that there is a thin line between
indiscipline and vigilantism.
They
disclosed that the politicians engage the ordinary citizens to perpetrate
nefarious activities in the country and charged the NCCE to start and advance certain
campaigns that would aid them deliver on their mandate since they are limited
in such respect.
On
how to curb indiscipline, they proposed civic education be made compulsory
right from the basic level of education.
“The
level of ignorance in our communities is very high. Civic education should
become compulsory from basic school. Until we get that done, we are going to
get it wrong,” an officer said.
Another
officer remarked that the NCCE “should provide serious education to political
actors.”
Laws
should be changed to allow security agencies to be independent and work
objectively.
Some
officers revealed that the Immigration Service is under resourced and that
affects their performance, claiming GIS has the least number of vehicles among
all the security agencies.
“We have a big problem. The problem is logistics and resources. We have recruited so many people in the country but we are not resourcing them,” an officer lamented.
By Nii Adjei Mensahfio
The post NCCE, GIS Discuss Vigilantism appeared first on DailyGuide Network.
