Ghana Navy Hails JJ

AND SAYS HE HAD WISDOM & FORESIGHT

Pained by the use of total falsehood by the immediate past Defence Minister and NPP flagbearer aspirant, Philip Kwame Addo-Kufuor, when he attacked the former President Rawlings and accused him of being visionless, some very senior and very accomplished officers of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), both serving and retired, have debunked the accusation as emanating from, as one of them put it, “crass ignorance”.

When a Former Navy Commander, Admiral E.O. Owusu-Ansah was reached for his comments he corroborated what this paper has been told. He also disagreed with Ex-Minister Addo-Kufuor about his reference to former President Rawlings as being “visionless”.

The officers, both serving and retired, who pleaded anonymity for obvious reasons, spoke this paper independent of one another. But the underlying truth remained the same; either Dr. Addo Kufuor was speaking from crass ignorance or he was being deliberately deceitful.

According to some of the finest professionals that the Ghana Armed Forces have had, President Rawlings did great things for the Ghana Armed Forces as a whole, making sure that the Ghana Armed Forces gained international recognition as being among the best, well-trained, and disciplined of Armed Forces anywhere in the world.

To a man, all the officers with whom this paper spoke agreed that it was under the leadership of the former fighter-pilot that the Ghana Armed Forces regained its glory after its image had been badly bruised in the pre-1979 era. “Let us take the case of the Ghana Navy, for example, when His Excellency the former President was Head of State, in his wisdom, he directed in 1998 that instead of Ghana Navy ships being taken all the way to Europe and elsewhere for refitting every 6-8 years, the facilities at the Sekondi Naval Base should be upgraded to enable the Navy undertake all repairs, refits and refurbishments locally,” recalled one retired officer.

“This was to create jobs at Sekondi, and also create avenues for our men to become competent and self-assured such that they would no longer feel that it is only the whiteman who can do it, but they feel, and know that they are equally capable and competent! If this is not visionary, what is it?” the asked retired officer.

Independently confirming this, another high-ranking officer, currently in service, pointed out that, “in phase 1 of that project, a Contract for the Modernization of the Naval Workshop was signed in September 2000 with MTU of Germany and the initial down-payment of 15% was made.”

The officer however lamented the fact that, “the Contract that was to be executed within 24 months (2yrs) is yet to be completed” under the tenure of Dr. Addo-Kufuor and his so-called visionary NPP government.

The Weekly Standard has learnt that under President Rawlings, the Navy was resourced to conduct regular patrols and apprehend many trawlers, including foreign vessels fishing in our waters.

One such arrest, the Weekly Standard learnt, was in October 2000, which yielded US $1.275million in legal fines.

“President Rawlings authorized the money realized from that fine to be used to fund the replacement of sensitive equipment removed by the US Coast Guard from two ships donated by the US Govt. to Ghana in November 1999, navy personnel costs, and expenses involved in sailing the two ships to Ghana,” revealed another retired officer.

The Weekly Standard also learnt that the US had earlier in 1998 donated two other ships to Ghana. The handover of the ships from the US commenced in Dec 2000 and the last was expected in June 2001.

“Again, under His Excellency former President Rawlings, another Contract for the Modernization of the Slipway and the Supply of Shipyard Equipment was also signed with DAMEN of the Netherlands and initial deposit paid in October 2000. The Contract which was to last 27 months to enable Phase 2 (The Refit of the ships) to start, is also yet to be completed,” revealed another high-ranking serving officer.

“Sadly, during the tenure of Dr. Addo-Kufour, a blood-brother of the sitting President, the NPP government tried to abandon the Project to Modernize the Sekondi Naval Base and have the Naval Vessels again sent to an overseas shipyard, this time in South Africa in 2002 for refit. I dare him to challenge this,” the serving officer challenged.

The officer explained that, “fortunately, he was prevailed upon to rather stick to the Rawlings vision of a local refit in Sekondi.”

The Weekly Standard has learnt that having been so shamed, Hon Addo-Kufour decided not to go forward with the project at all.

In fact, it was not until April 2006 that it was revived. The Project will now be completed in August 2008, instead of June2003. And yet, Addo-Kufour is claiming credit for the modernization of the Slipway!

The Weekly Standard has also learnt that in the year 2000, President Rawlings gave permission for the Navy to apply a Chinese Grant of US $2million to commence the construction of a Naval Barracks near the Aboadze Thermal Plant in Sekondi as Phase 3 of the Project.

“Addo-Kufour decided to take the US $2million away from Sekondi to build the so-called Chinese Barracks at Burma Camp. I don’t fault him on that. It is a matter of priority, and that was his priority. Fine. But if he were as visionary, he would have realised that the Western Naval Command needed to have its own barracks. As I speak, the Western Naval Command is still without a Barracks!” one of our sources revealed.

“As a result of the unnecessary frustrations from Hon Addo-Kufour, the Navy currently has no fully operational vessels and is therefore unable to go out to sea to intercept Cocaine-laden vessels that intelligence reports indicate have been frequenting Ghanaian waters. One may ask, is this visionary? Or is it a deliberate policy to make our coast-line vulnerable to enable these ships to have easy access to our country? I leave it to Ghanaians to judge,” a retired officer said.

“Sadly, most of the naval personnel who were trained in India and Germany ahead of the local Refit Project have had to take their expertise elsewhere and deserted the Ghana Armed Forces. The Navy has lost the investment made in their training,” a currently serving officer, who independently confirmed what the retired officer said, lamented.

Indeed, many senior officers are of the view that the six and half years tour of duty of Hon Kwame Addo-Kufour as Minister of Defence was a disaster for the Navy and he will go down in history as perhaps the only Minister who was neither able to acquire or refit even a single ship for the Ghana Navy. In the coming weeks, we shall bring details of how, under the visionary leadership of former President Rawlings, the other arms of the Ghana Armed Forces were improved.