Prepare to deal with terrorism - Prez urges Armed Forces
The President, John Dramani Mahama, has charged the Ghana Armed Forces to step up their level of preparedness to confront and deal with any act of terrorism against the country.
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He said the world had become a dangerous and unpredictable place with all manner of non-state actors achieving the capacity to wage war and wreak violence on unsuspecting and soft targets.
Some of those non-state actors, he said, were terrorists who were driven by religious and other nebulous persuasions to take advantage of democratic societies to wreak havoc.
President Mahama was speaking at the 2015 WASSA of the Ghana Armed Forces in Accra last Friday.
He said in the face of Ghana’s expanding economy and the creation of more opportunities, there were “contentions of threat to national security that require proper intense structures and mechanisms”.
The President, therefore, urged the GAF to step up their readiness to deal with eventualities such as hostage situations, bombings and attacks on shopping malls.
Reminding the soldiers that “these are not groups that are easily defeated by conventional forces,” President Mahama underscored the need for a reappraisal of training techniques that would place them in the stead to deal with such unconventional terrorist practices.
Re-tooling the GAF
Towards that end, he pledged his continued commitment to the retooling of the GAF to enable them to build their capacity to confront and expertly deal with any threat to national security.
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President Mahama said later this year, the country would take delivery of four new Z9 helicopters from China, adding that in view of that, the first batch of pilots had been sent to China for training and another batch would also be sent to be deployed.
Also, he said, five new superpowered aircraft suitable for training and combat would arrive in the country later in the year to beef up the logistic base of the GAF.
He further disclosed that the government had procured a $300 million facility to provide a variety of needed equipment and other logistics to bring GAF’s logistics and equipment at all United Nations operational levels up to date.
That facility will also provide an aircraft for operations in Mali and also see to the retrofitting of all aircraft currently operating in Cote d’Ivoire.
President Mahama announced that a new hangar would be constructed at the Tamale air force base to serve as a centre of excellence for the training of Ghanaian pilots and others from the sub-region.
Due to the excellence and expertise of doctors and other medical staff of the 37 Military Hospital which had seen an influx of patients from all over the country, he said the government had decided to construct a 500-bed capacity ultra-modern military hospital in Kumasi to serve the northern part of the country.
Upgrading of Military
President Mahama said the government had upgraded the facilities at the GAF Command and Staff College with a new auditorium, lecture halls, among others, and that with the level of facilities at the college, it had received accreditation to become a fully-fledged military university.
The college, he said, would from this year offer a Master of Science programme in Military Science, with a Doctor of Philosophy to commence next year.
The college will also see an expansion in its facilities in order to increase enrolment from the current 100 students to 200.
He commended the GAF for their collaborative efforts with other security agencies that had ensured peace and security in the country and helped reduce armed robbery.
That, he said, was ample demonstration of the GAF keeping to their roles, values and traditions even in the face of logistic constraints.
The Chief of Staff of the GAF, Major General Bobson Gbemmieh, said 2014 was quite challenging in terms of their responsibilities vis-a-vis their resources and the budgetary constraints within which they had to operate.
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“However, we persevered in our effort to administer our human resource in a manner that encouraged hard work, discipline, dedication to duty and culture of unity. We remained in our determination to ensure internal security and to contribute our quota to the development efforts of our nation,” he said.
He admitted that their achievements were largely the functions of the synergy between the GAF and other sister security agencies, governmental agencies, the diplomatic corps, as well as local and international corporate bodies.
Six officials of the GAF, including three from other ranks and three from senior officers rank, were rewarded for their performances in a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) essay competition.