Open letter to the Ghana Armed Forces

Dear Men and Women of the Ghana Armed Forces,

I am writing to you as a proud Ghanaian citizen who has always been excited by your pride and gallantry, and selfless dedication to serve Motherland in the Ghana Armed Forces. I believe you all enjoy the privilege and opportunity to serve internationally whenever you are deployed on missions abroad and often produce from amongst your ranks distinguished and acclaimed Best Officer in Peace Keeping Duties and Tactical Excellence.

This is an accolade you have consistently received wherever you are deployed worldwide as you raise high the flag of Ghana and put it on a pedestal of good standing on international assignments.

I believe your families, townsfolk and friends equally share in your pride and achievements because of your pedigree and service excellence and considering that you were recruited and selected from among the best of your cohort and trained to high standards of discipline, and equipped with the requisite skills, proficiencies and tactical competence, and as such you are rated to world-class standards that is the envy of many countries worldwide.

Unfortunately, under the tenure of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, morale and standards of the Ghana Armed Forces is in decline due to uncompetitive recruitment and selection practices often without official public recruitment advertisements to attract the right calibre of persons and rather what we are witnessing is enlistment of New Patriotic Party (NPP) sympathisers and vigilantes, and alleged ex-convicts into the Ghana Armed Forces.

We are also witnessing subtle attempts to “politicise” the Ghana Armed Forces through the side-lining of experienced Officers and Personnel, who are replaced with pro-NPP Officers and this has contributed to lowering of training standards and discipline, and Ghana potentially risks losing its enviable international reputation on international assignments such as United Nations Peacekeeping deployments.

Fellow Men and Women of our Ghana Armed Forces, must we allow the “politicisation agenda” and lowering of standards of the Ghana Armed Forces to continue? Should we allow the potential loss of respectability and accrued distinguished legacies of your predecessors to be whittled away on the altar of political expediency by Nana Akufo-Addo and his NPP administration?

Now, in the past, you have never been frequently deployed on special assignments within our country’s borders in peacetime as you are currently being abused and misused on in-country deployments necessitated by flimsy parochial reasons in furtherance of an NPP partisan agenda as happened during the recent Voter Registration Exercise where you were primarily deployed to the Volta and Oti Regions. Again, you are presently being deployed once more to the Volta and Oti Regions ahead of the 7th December elections.

Indeed, as recently as 30th November heavy military presence never before witnessed during our Fourth Republican Constitutional era was deployed at Obra-Spot Circle to police the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Protest March against the prevailing high levels of corruption under the incumbent NPP administration.

Please note that under Nana Akufo-Addo, you appear to be ubiquitous and are deployed on the whims and caprices of NPP. When this continues and communities and citizens get accustomed to seeing you, you are bound to lose the respect and reverence, and awe to which many in the public uphold and perceive you in society.

Again, I wish to remind those of you who have been deployed into the communities under the ruse of pursuing Elections duties and perhaps with instructions to intimidate and cause “fear and panic” on Election day to think twice because you also have families and relations residing elsewhere across the country. You must ensure and uphold the peace wherever you are deployed and keep the country safe and peaceful for everyone. You are well advised and entreated to adopt a posture of positive defiance should you be commanded to undertake any “unlawful” acts unacceptable for peacetime Military conduct.

We know many of you have already voted and to ensure that the Ghana Armed Forces remains reputable, respectable, enviable, please cease being used to undertake unpopular Partisan Political assignments which brings the name of the Ghana Armed Forces into disrepute. Please entreat all your families and friends who love Ghana and cherish the work you do, to VOTE OUT Nana Akufo-Addo. This singular decision of voting out Akufo-Addo will help restore your pride, esteem, and pride of place in Ghana and internationally.

We cannot afford to see you continue lowering and reducing the standards of the Ghana Armed Forces as happening now under the Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia NPP administration. Let's make that change decision now.

God Bless you gallant Men and Women of the Ghana Armed Forces.

Sincerely Yours,

One of your admirers,

Kweku Boateng