Place of military in Ghana’s civil administration

I love the military. When the armed services and the police are marching in a phalanx to martial music, my heart throbs within in synch with the music and the stomping feet. 

As the parade Commander yells his commands and the troops respond with dexterous, positional manoeuvres, to the admiration of the crowd, I experience a lift in spirit and fervour of affection for Ghana.

I never missed a military parade at Independence Square on July 1 (Republic Day).

Throughout the world, nations use military parades and displays of armaments, to rekindle the patriotism of the citizenry, and reassure them of the readiness of their military to defend the nation.

The esprit de corps of the military on parade infuses pride, self-confidence, and selfless spirit into the citizenry, reminding them of the loyalty expected of them in their various vocations in the nation.

Unfortunately, President Akufo-Addo has cancelled the Republic Day holiday, and, along with that, military parades have ceased in Ghana. He does not know what he has done to the nation!

It should be an enormous cost to the nation to maintain a standing army. So, in peacetime Ghana, in what ways could the military be put to use in the civil administration of Ghana? That’s what we shall consider.

My knowledge of the qualities that define the military as a class of professionals arose from my stay with them as an Instructor in Communication Studies at the Ghana Military Academy in the late 1980s. 

A new curriculum was introduced known as Standard Military Course, in partnership with the British Army, and I, and another civilian, the late Dr Kantanka Mensah, who lectured in International Affairs, were the civilians who teamed up with the military staff to handle the cadet-officers.

I was taken on under the CO of GMA, Lt Col Disu. Commandant MATS was then Gen Winston Mensah-Wood. Col Disu took an instant liking to me and asked me to consider converting to the military.

I smiled. I started mid-way with intake 25, then handled intakes 26, 27, 28.

It was with CO GMA, Lt Col Anyidoho, that I worked with most for intakes 26-28. Col Anyidoho was hard-driving, thorough, a military traditionalist, and fatherly as well!

He insisted on high standards for the officer cadets and imparted time-consciousness, meticulous personal turn-out, and allegiance to the military culture. Periodically, he sat in while I taught my class, as academic excellence was also required of the officer cadets.

Some of my colleagues on the staff were the late Lt Col Adulai, French Instructor, Majors Kusi, Safo, Aboagye, Kumah, and a British officer, Major Eydes.

Convert

I turned down the request that I should convert to the military, and I would tell you why. One day, we were on a military exercise, forgetting which one and where, but outside Accra, and, early in the morning, we assembled on the field after the exercise for debriefing by Col Anyidoho. He was talking when it got to 6.55 am, just before 7 am news.

Major Eydes had a small radio set in his hands. Then Harriet Tachie-Mensah of GBC, spoke: ‘Today's “Word with You” is by Teddy Ahumah Ocansey of the Ghana Military Academy”! Then my recorded voice was heard!

Wow! Silence! A stunned silence! Col Anyidoho was nonplussed; my officer cadets were surprised but proud to hear my voice on a national network. Col gave me a hard look that I understood: by whose permission have you gone on a national radio to speak as coming from the Ghana Military Academy?

I was sitting on the grass, perturbed and unsettled. Major Eydes broke the chill by congratulating me on what I said. Uhm!

That episode confirmed my conviction I could not be in the military because my mind is free-ranging, and I love to express my opinion on matters of interest! My numerous articles attest to that. When I found the military rather restrictive of my spirit, I left the GMA in 1990.

Qualities

What did I learn about the military?  These qualities stand out: planning, attention to detail, trust and loyalty, commitment to a cause/objective, capacity to endure whatever, environmental consciousness (neatness), time-consciousness and, lastly, obedience to instructions/command.

Where do these fit into Ghana’s civilian administration?  One area in which I envisage the military could be deployed with maximum success is in the Municipal administration of the various districts in Ghana. Currently, places such as Ashaiman have been abandoned to filth and disorder, and so it goes for several other districts.

Even Accra Central is a monstrous shame! In this regard, the military officer, preferably a Major, would be given a four-year assignment, and be given allowance to that effect. After the four-year term, he returns to barracks, to be replaced. Our towns would be transformed into neat and decent places to live in.

With the rapid destruction of our forest reserves, any programme to rehabilitate the forests could be placed under the operational responsibility of the military, with assistance from the forest experts. Such undertaking requires tenacity and selflessness in working in the jungle, with all the rains and insects and heat. The military is trained to cope in such environments.

Beyond this, tree-planting and to check desertification of the northern plains of Ghana could also be assigned to them.

But for the government’s compromise of galamsey, the military could eliminate this scourge in 24 hours! Nonetheless, they are the best organ of the state to stamp out the menace, and the task must be given to them. If this nation does not stop the continuing destruction of the water bodies, we must know that we are on the path of self-annihilation, because water is life.

It is an error of misgovernance that the military is perceived as a threat to democracy and that they must be kept at arm’s length from the civil administration of the country. What we must rather do, as a developing nation, is to use every available talent constructively to advance the nations' good fortunes.

That is to say since we have military engineers, why don’t we provide them with the machinery and give them roads to construct, boreholes to drill, schools and clinics to build, and so on?

We are wasting an immense pool of talented and capable personnel in Ghana. 

The military and their civilian counterparts must work together in as many ways as possible to foster such an alliance.

A National Military Day would enable the military to display their traditional skills in events such as military tattoos, martial music concerts, “Beating the Retreat”, and equestrian performances.

Ideally, National Service should have been one-year compulsory military service, but the cost of kitting and feeding might be too much for the government, otherwise, this is the best way to train the minds of the younger generation that shall succeed their elders, as the latter pass on in life.

The military is a source of strength in a nation, and as a developing nation, we must employ practical wisdom create an administrative amalgam of military and civilian personnel, and use them sensibly for the good of our nation.

The writer is a lawyer.