US, British cadet corps call on Defence Minister
The fostering and promotion of co-operation between the military and the civilian population took centre stage when a team from the National Cadet Corps and its counterpart from the United States and Britain called on the Minister of Defence, Mr Mark Owen Woyongo, at his office in Accra yesterday.
Officers of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) shared with the foreign cadet corps programmes and policies the GAF had been executing to foster stronger partnership between the military and the civilian population.
Mr Woyongo, deputising for the Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur set the tone for the discussion and said until recently, military-civilian relationship was not the best because civilians perceived the military as a symbol of oppression.
He said so much effort had since been made to change that perception, adding that they included military-civilian engagements and the military providing essential services, particularly disaster management, for the civilian population.
The acting Principal General Staff Officer at the Ministry of Defence, Naval Captain Samuel Wiredu Anim; the Director of Public Affairs at the ministry, Colonel Ankomah Danso, and Group Captain George Arko-Dadzie also gave some insights into how the GAF had partnered the civilian population on various fronts.
They mentioned the 37 Military Hospital, which caters for the health needs of civilians as well.
Realising how important and special the cadet corps were to the development of the country, Mr Woyongo said the government had set up a co-ordinating desk at the Ministry of Youth and Sports to oversee the administration of the corps.
Squadron Leader Stuart Mcneill of the Royal Air Force Cadet of the UK shared his country’s experience with the Ghanaian team.
The first cadet corps in Ghana was established at the Ghana Secondary/Technical School (GSTS) in Takoradi in 1954, with the aim of establishing cadet corps in schools to instill discipline and loyalty among students.
Currently, 223 schools have cadet corps with a total membership of 13,380 across all the regions of the country.
The National Cadet Corps is an amalgamation of the Army, Navy, Air Force, the Police and the Fire Service Cadet corps.
By Sebastian Syme & Giulia Sofia Pittini
