The Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) has held its ninth Sandwich Conference with a charge to civil society to rekindle its vibrancy to exact accountability from political leadership.
Prof William Boateng, the Head of Arts and Social Sciences Programmes, College of Distance Education, observed that political leaders were now obsessed with amassing wealth and power rather than advancing the cause of society.
He said the situation had already landed the country in a political crisis, which had degenerated into the current economic crisis and feared that it could plunge Ghana into further difficulties.
“Every society that allows its system to be overridden by money and power, not being used for the good of the people, is likely to run into anarchy,” he cautioned.
“Too much power has been ceded to politicians. We need to ensure that the civil society becomes so vibrant to keep the system on its toes. We need to keep the politicians on their toes to be accountable to the people,” he said.
Mr Boateng observed that Ghanaians had been socialised to embrace timidity, instead of confronting and questioning the system, and blamed the situation partly on religion.
“We have been socialised to believe that when things are bad, we should quickly leave it to God and so we don’t even think about finding solutions to anything,” he stated.
“We can’t even question our government. Our Members of Parliament go to Parliament and play like small boys and girls. It is a shame, we need to start questioning our leaders because we have more power than they have.”
The ninth Sandwich Conference commemorated 21 years of introducing the sandwich programme, which started as a certificate course on social behaviour and conflict management for security entities and related agencies.
The programme has fast advanced and now offers Diploma in Social Behaviour and Conflict Management, Post-Diploma in Social Behaviour and Conflict Management, and Master in Sociology of Peace and Security.
The ninth conference is the first after the COVID-19 pandemic, held on the theme: “Two decades of training in social behaviour, conflict management and peace studies: A journey of resilience and innovation.”
It assembled security personnel, majority of whom were either alumni or current students to confer and celebrate.
Prof Boateng said corruption was getting worse in the society with many Ghanaians disenchanted and called on Parliament to lead the charge for a functional national plan and which successive governments would be compelled to follow.
Touching on some successes of the conference over the years, he said they interrogated critical sociological issues confronting the country and recommended feasible ways of addressing them.
“Our country needs help and we need many people to be trained scientifically to interrogate some of the social challenges we have as a society,” he added.
Prof Mansa Prah, a former Head of Department, Sociology and Anthropology, who is the brain behind the sandwich programme, recounted how it was inspired by the May 9, 2001 Accra Sports Stadium Disaster in which hundreds were killed.
However, after conferring with some security experts and the University, it took a few years for the programme to commence due to administrative procedures.
She said the demand by students for higher courses inspired the Department to introduce the Diploma, Post-Diploma and Master courses subsequently.
The journey had been successful because of the resilient strategies instituted, she added.
Prof Prah entreated the Department to constantly monitor and evaluate the programme to make it relevant to adjustments to conform to the changing times.
She encouraged it to be innovative and leverage technological tools like the internet and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to run the programme more effectively.
Prof Georgina Yaa Oduro, the Head of Department, Sociology and Anthropology, paid glowing tribute to Prof Prah for her vision and leadership in introducing the course and acknowledged the role of all other stakeholders in sustaining it.
She said the sandwich programme was still thriving with more than 300 students despite stiff competition from other universities.
“It has been a journey of resilience because while others were folding, the Department came up with innovative ways to attract more students,” she said.
Prof Oduro touted the achievements of the programme, indicating that the impact had been great and helped students to progress in their career.
“It is a practitioner-based programme; it is not so theoretical. It is an intermarriage between industry and academia,” she stressed.
She pledged the Department’s resolve to explore and diversify the approach to meet the different needs of their clientele.
The conference was climaxed with fun games and fundraising and dinner on Friday, September 13.
