98 Graduate from Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College

Ninety eight officers, including 68 from the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and 30 officers from 16 African countries graduated yesterday from the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC).

This was after they had been taken through the course and passed the Senior Command and Staff Course 45, as well as the Master’s in Defence and International Politics (MDIP)

Among the graduates were 42 professionals including politicians, civil and public servants, personnel from sister security services and the media who also graduated with MDIP.

One Nigerian student was however said to have withdrawn from the course on medical grounds.

The course, which commenced on September 8 last year, comprised military and academic programmes, including maritime governance, defence management, conflict and crisis management, and counter-terrorism.

The graduates also undertook an African study tour in five countries as part of the course while a new module, multi-domain operations and future wars, was added to the course this year.

The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who was the guest of honour at the joint graduation ceremony at the GAFCSC at Teshie in Accra yesterday, encouraged the graduates to dwell on the teachings to conduct themselves professionally.

That, he said, was to ensure that stability and the tenets of democracy were always upheld.

Touching on this year’s Presidential and Parliamentary elections in December, the Vice-President said, regardless of the free and fair nature of elections in the country over the years, it had been fraught with security challenges and had in some instances, resulted in fatalities.

He said governments had, in the fourth republic, always depended on the professionalism, discipline of the GAF and their resolve to discharge their duties without fear or favour.

He, however, said, “I admit that we find ourselves in an era of intense misinformation and disinformation campaigns targeted at both the civil populace, you the armed forces and the government.”

“We must understand that these acts do not only have the potential to throw the country into a state of anarchy but also impact the wider security of the West African Region,” Dr Bawumia cautioned.

 Graduands

Advising the graduates, Dr Bawumia said throughout training, the graduates had been exposed to security, defence, governance and other pertinent concepts and issues of both national and international magnitude.

Dr Bawumia, therefore, urged them to understand the importance of collaborative efforts in realising national security objectives or operational goals.

That, he said, shed light on the essence of joint operations as well as the key roles, allies, multi-national agencies, sister security agencies and governmental organisations played in achieving set objectives.

He said the world had been experiencing a continuous shift in global power dynamics and security over the years and therefore it was far less predictable today than it was decades ago; the adversary was known and its capabilities well-defined in context, reach and intent.

However, he said, the contest of power in a multi-polar world as well as advancement in technology among others had resulted in the birth of several non-state actors with proxies of varied potency dotted across the world.

In that regard, Dr Bawumia said, it was evident that the scope of warfare and security threats had equally changed and would continue to evolve from the traditional means and medium to a more complex structure.

The tactics of these actors such as violent extremist groups, he indicated, had changed from invasions in large groups to surgical strikes targeting key national infrastructure using cheap modified first-person view kamikaze drones that were highly lethal aside from other equally fatal approaches.

New programmes

The Commandant of the GAFCSC, Major General Matthew Essien, in his report announced that the college would start a PhD in Defence and International Politics next month.

To ensure that the GAF benefited from these investments, Major General Essien said the control board of the GAFCSC had directed that the initial intake of 11 students should include five qualified military officers to sharpen their academic competencies to be subsequently deployed into higher educational institutions.

He said GAFCSC would be given a Presidential charter as an autonomous tertiary educational institution and subsequently a constituent college for the establishment of the national defence university.

He said in line with GAFCSCS’s determination to provide many options, the college with the approval of the control board and having satisfied accreditation requirements had added another discipline namely Master of Science in Security Studies to the MDIP programme.

Major General Essien further appealed to the government and private institutions to support the college to improve the infrastructure following its growing population.