The Ex-Boys Association, made up of retired soldiers who were recruited into the military at tender ages, has bemoaned what they described as “low standards of discipline” in the military currently.
They are therefore calling on the government to consider reintroducing the Boys Company, and later on, Junior Leaders Company systems whereby Ghanaians as young as 14-years old were selected, trained and educated to take up positions in the army in future.
Nana Akwasi Agyeman, PRO, Ex-Boys Association, said, “I am appealing to government to consider reintroducing the Boys Company system so that those that would be enlisted in the army would get the best of moral and physical training”.
He told the media in Kumasi that the discipline that used to be exhibited by military men some years ago when the Boys Company System was in operation in the country, had fallen sharply.
The Boys Company system which started in 1953 was eventually stopped in 1982. Most products of the Boys Company have made it in life, with some of them occupying key positions in society now.
According to him, the three years duration used to train the Boys Company products contributed to make them strong and effective morally and physically which ensured that they performed excellently as soldiers later in life.
Nana Agyeman was speaking with the media after his group had paid a courtesy call on the Bantamahene, Baffuor Asare Owusu Amankwatia V, in Kumasi on Tuesday to brief him about the programmes lined up in celebrating the 60 years of the Boys Company.
As part of the 60 years anniversary of the Ex-Boys Company, the group would name the street from Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Roundabout to Bekwai Roundabout, as Boys Company Street on Wednesday with a colourful ceremony.
Earlier on, Ambassador Dr Nana Gabby Nsiah Nketia urged the Bantamahene and all Ghanaians to throw their support behind his group as they marked their 60 years anniversary.
Bantamahene, Baffuor Asare Owusu Amankwatia V in a speech read on his behalf enumerated the huge benefits that Gold Coast/Ghana benefitted from the Boys Company System.
He said those that who passed through the system were well educated, disciplined, hard working and patriotic, hoping that the Boys Company System would be revisited for the youth in the country to also benefit from it.
