The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) is facing a brain drain crisis as many of its fine officers are leaving because they find the Armed Forces unattractive, says Brigadier-General Joseph Nunoo Mensah, National Security Adviser.
He said over the past few years, GAF had lost a number of officers who found no future in the Armed Forces. Brig. General Nunoo Mensah who was speaking at the launch of the golden jubilee anniversary of Ghana Military Academy in Accra on Saturday said there was the need to examine this phenomenon and find solution in order to sustain the military institution.
The anniversary, which will be marked with a series of activities, is under the theme: ‘Beyond 50 years of Excellence: Turning out elite leaders for national and international peace and security’.
Brig-Gen Nunoo Mensah said a modern Armed Forces was expensive to maintain, a situation which demanded that the leadership of GAF must place emphasis on quality rather than on quantity to ensure that basic needs were provided to maintain operational efficiency.
He said reforms were necessary because the emerging national, regional and international security environment would place on the GAF a heavy burden in the year ahead.
“As the National Security Adviser, I am fully aware that the Armed Forces’ ability to effectively deliver on their mandate is a vital pre-requisite for our survival as a nation” he said.
Brig-Gen. Nunoo Mensah said over the years globalization had changed the nature of conflicts from “international to more of an intra-national conflict,” and the next generation of officers must therefore be well prepared intellectually, physically and technically to play their roles on the international as well as local scenes.
“our nation today is faced with increasing chieftaincy disputes with the security services, including the Armed Forces, finding themselves caught up in these disputes struggling to maintain law and order”, he said.
Brig-Gen. Nunoo Mensah said under the present circumstances, security personnel must maintain absolute neutrality and professionalism in the conflict areas and the leadership must also ensure that the Armed Forces was devoid of any politics and negative tendencies. “In the immediate years ahead, we need to inculcate new values into the young officers that come out of the Military Academy so that they eschew politics, ethnicity and other divisive tendencies that may confront the military,” he stressed.
Brig. Gen, Nunoo Mensah said the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Ghana Military Academy was therefore a welcome opportunity for GAF to carry out an institutional self-introspection, and performance audit to chart the way forward into the future.
Lt. Gen. P.A Blay, Chief of Defence Staff, said his vision of leadership was to ensure a well motivated, cohesive and formidable joint force, with the capacity to effectively discharge its constitutional responsibility.
He said the next generation of officers in the Ghana Military Academy have the obligation to translate the anniversary theme into reality by rededicating themselves to their jobs, turning out as elite leaders steeped in the finest traditions of the profession.
Lt. Gen. Blay asked corporate bodies to contribute materially to the Academy to be able to train good professional soldiers to guarantee an enabling environment for national development.
