Coming Soon: "Underbelly:" or A Journey to Law Enforcement?

My maternal grandfather was an Inspector in the Ghana Police Service, but that's no reason why I want to go into law enforcement.

In fact, let me be frank: I DON'T want to become a police officer in any sense of the term, but I am increasingly interested in pursuing a career that would involve my passion of regional integration/peace and security/ and law enforcement.

This is no out-of-the-blue desire; it's been burning for as long as I can remember. If I had to write a Ph.D right now, it would be on criminology, or looking at the underbelly of society. I've always had a visceral desire to combat injustice--just not sure how I would do it.

A few days ago, my Facebook status read like this:

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"Just finished watching another rivetting and exciting episode of the hit Australian true crime drama ''Underbelly:The Golden Mile''[on Fox Africa]. This is what fighting police corruption should be abt: the police bringing undercover officers/wire-tapping/and no less than a Royal Commission which mandates everyone to appear to testify, or face imprisonment. This is WHAT political will can achieve. Kudos, Australia!!:-)"


Just by watching this series alone, I have developed a fairly basic research agenda, which I intend deepening:

• the role of EUROPOL in globalising European law enforcement
• law enforcement in (West) Africa, including the role of the West Africa Police Chiefs committee organisation (WAPCCO)
• The role of INTERPOL in globalising justice
• law enforcement & regional integration

My upcoming piece on "Underbelly" is not likely to be an exhaustive account of Ghanaian society's ills, but a more reflective account on how I might someday eventually end up in law enforcement, and how the integration of my passion of comparative global regional integration can help make my mind up.

These include why I think our Ghana Police Service should act more as a Ghana Police Force and do away with what I think is an outdated concept of the Inspector-General of Police(IGP) who is appointed; and how our Ghana Police Service should do away with the regionalised system and become a fully-fledged FBI-like police force.

As the Week Draws to a Close in Accra: Xmas Preparations

So much has happened over the past month that it's difficult to know where to start.

I have been to a wedding and quite a number of funerals; gotten ill (for which I am recovering); been swamped by work (as you do at this time) and generally taken time out to do more tweeting than blogging and facebooking (on account of office restrictions).


Suffice to say, the fat lady has not sung, which means that the blogging show is not quite over. There's quite a bit I want to add to the debate on Ivory Coast, such as that the ECOWAS Standby Force (under the ambit of the African Standby Force) ought to intervene over the diplomatic pussy-footing and tergiversation.

Africa has come of age, and it's time the Ghanaian media pointed these out instead of the cacophony over Ghana producing oil (as important as that may be) since 15 December.

I will officially take a blogging hiatus from the 23rd of December up to New Year 2011.

Till then, the fat lady still got some practising to do!;-)