Another national tragedy has struck, and once again, it is the youth who have paid the price. A simple military recruitment exercise has resulted in multiple injuries and the heartbreaking loss of six young Ghanaian lives. These were not soldiers in battle; they were job seekers. Young men and women with hope in their hearts, desperate for an opportunity to serve their country, seeking dignity, seeking a future.
Yet in the process of trying to serve Ghana, Ghana failed them – victims not of bullets, but of a system that refuses to evolve. All in pursuit of a job opportunity that should have been conducted with dignity, structure, and modern efficiency. This tragedy forces us to confront a painful truth: in Ghana, the ordinary citizen suffers most not from enemies outside, but from the very systems meant to serve them. Even more disturbing is the persistent belief held by some officers that shouting, aggression, and intimidation are necessary to command respect, when simple, clear, respectful communication would achieve more without dehumanizing applicants.
The saddest part is that this tragedy is not surprising. We have seen this pattern at passport offices, schools, voter registration centers, national service registration points, and even hospital OPDs. Long queues, endless waiting, disrespect, confusion, heat exhaustion – the ingredients are always the same. It reflects a deeper problem: Ghana’s public systems are still wired in a way that drains citizens instead of serving them. It is as if from birth to death, every Ghanaian must “fight” the system to get even the simplest things done.
In 2025, one would expect that a military recruitment exercise, an event as crucial as selecting the nation’s defenders would be organized with precision, technology, and care. Yet, what we saw were thousands of youths crowded into open fields with little order, no respect, not much shade, and inadequate medical support. These young people stood for more than 12 hours under unbearable heat, many fainting and dehydrating before they could even reach the screening table. And for what? A chance at a job that could have been handled with modern digital tools and scheduled appointments.
Across the world, military recruitment is a structured, tightly controlled process. Screening is scheduled. Applicants arrive in batches. Basic safety measures are guaranteed. Technology handles submissions and shortlisting long before a candidate ever steps onto a parade ground. But in Ghana? We continue to summon thousands of desperate youths to open fields, under fierce heat, with no shade, no water, no proper crowd control, and fewer emergency systems in place. We have normalized disorganization to the point where suffering is expected, and now lives have been lost because of it.
This tragedy exposes a deeper problem in Ghana’s public administration — the chronic failure of leadership to plan, innovate, and value human life. Our institutions have mastered the art of reacting after disaster strikes. We issue condolences, set up committees, and move on, never fixing the root cause. The truth is uncomfortable: Ghana’s systems are designed not for efficiency, but for endurance, as if the citizen’s suffering is part of the process. Whether it’s renewing a passport, getting healthcare, or joining the military, the average Ghanaian must go through stress, chaos, and indignity.
Countries with far fewer resources than Ghana have modernized their recruitment systems. Rwanda schedules applicants with QR codes and staggered times. Kenya decentralizes physical screening to districts. The U.S. military pre-screens recruits online, conducts aptitude tests digitally, and only invites shortlisted candidates for structured physical evaluation. No mass suffering. No chaos. No avoidable deaths.
Ghana, meanwhile, continues to operate with outdated methods that treat citizens like an inconvenience. We must confront the truth: our systems are not failing by accident – they are failing by design, held together by old thinking, explaining issues away and a lack of innovation. Leadership reacts after tragedies, instead of preventing them with planning, technology, and foresight.
What happened in Ghana reflects a larger mindset problem – leadership that lacks attention to detail, proactivity, and empathy. We cannot keep saying “this is Ghana” as an excuse for inefficiency. Progress demands that we question why we still gather thousands of citizens for tasks that technology can complete in minutes. Why do we design systems that exhaust, humiliate, and sometimes kill the very people they are meant to serve?
Every death in this recruitment exercise is a scar on the conscience of a nation that refuses to modernize. These young people could have been the next generation of Ghana’s military leaders, scientists, teachers, and innovators. Instead, their dreams were buried beneath the heat and disorder of bureaucracy.
Ghana must rise above this culture of reactive leadership and archaic procedures. Modern governance is not just about speeches and promises – it is about systems that respect the dignity and safety of citizens. The military must take this tragedy as a call to reform: digitize recruitment, decentralize screening centers, provide medical and logistical support, and treat every applicant as a human being, not a statistic.
This is not just about the military; it is about who we are as a nation. A country that continues to sacrifice its youth on the altar of poor planning cannot claim to value its future.
The writer, Jonathan Awewomom, is a GH Research Scientist based in Miami, FLorida-USA and a Governance Advocate.
References
- United Nations E-Government Survey (2024). Digital Governance for Sustainable Development.(https://desapublications.un.org/publications/un-e-government-survey-2024?utm )
- Rwanda e-Gov Portal (2024). Modernized Public Recruitment Systems (https://www.mifotra.gov.rw/news-detail/recruitment-of-public-servants-digitized-in-rwanda?utm_source )
- African News: “Six people die in a stampede during military recruitment in Ghana” (https://www.africanews.com/2025/11/12/six-people-die-in-a-stampede-during-military-recruitment-in-ghana/?utm)
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