Government pledges to equip the military.

President John Agyekum Kufuor on Friday said within the constraints of the economy the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) would be equipped to maintain acceptable professional standards.

"We are very much aware that the reputation of our Armed Forces can only be sustained, particularly in your peacekeeping duties outside the country, if we are able to keep you at a reasonable level of preparedness."

President Kufuor was addressing the passing out parade of officer cadets of the GAF at the Military Academy and Training School at Teshie in Accra.

The cadets constituted the Regular Course Intake 41 and the Short Service

Commission and Special Duties Course 40. The regular course had 30 cadet officers including a woman while the short course had 20 including six women.

President Kufuor said the military career was an honourable profession, which should make the Armed Forces, earn the respect and confidence of their compatriots.

It should also make them treat the oath they swore with the sanctity it deserves and respect their constitutional obligations.

The Ghana Armed Forces have, however, had a chequered development contrary to their role in the constitution where 27 out of the country's 44 years of independence had been ruled by the military, he observed.

President Kufuor said this irregularity occurred not as a result of a deliberate decision by the military establishment as such but of its resignation in the face of challenges posed by elements within its ranks bent on subverting the constitutional order.

"The involvement of the Armed Forces in politics has tended to divide the military itself and also introduced a rift and unnecessary tension between the military and the rest of society. The consequences have been very expensive and negative for the proper socio-economic development of the nation."

President Kufuor said the military should be allowed to deepen itself in full professionalism at home just as it had done abroad to international acclaim and demonstrate its full commitment as national institution that was ready to protect and uphold the sovereignty of the state and be loyal to the elected government.

This should be the normal order of things, he said and called on the military to ensure that the strength and authority of the Armed Forces were kept intact to prevent the recurrence of the unlawful disruptions of the past that damaged their image and distorted the smooth constitutional evolution of the state.

"This way, the military institution will be restored to the respect and trust it must have within the body politic to be fully effective.

''It is up to you to extend an arm of friendship and partnership to your civilian counterparts and to show an interest in their well-being".

Real Admiral J.Y. Adoko, Commandant of the MATS, said for a developing country like Ghana, the new battlegrounds were to fight illiteracy, poverty and diseases.

An additional responsibility was to protect the infant democracy and the prevailing peace to pave the way for development, he told the soldiers.

Cadet Officer Kofi Obiri-Yeboah, 24, was adjudged the best all-round cadet and was presented with the Sword of Honour.

Other award winners were Cadet Officer Michael Mfum 22, who had the Military Cane, Cadet Officer Emmanuel Darko 28, had the Academic Cane while the Army Commander's price went to Cadet Sergeant Maxwell Kobla Akpo, 30.

President Kufuor, also the Commander-In -Chief of the GAF formally commissioned the cadet officers into the officer corps.