President Akufo-Addo, the Reviewing Officer inspecting a guard of honour mounted for him at the graduation ceremony in Accra.
PRESIDENT AKUFO-Addo has reiterated his administration is providing more logistics to the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to protect the nation’s air, land and sea borders from the growing threat of terrorism.
Addressing the 2022 graduation parade of the Ghana Military Academy regular career course 61 in Accra yesterday, he said threats of terrorism are a clear and present danger, but the strong partnership between government and the GAF has kept the state safe and will continue to be so.
In view of contemporary, emerging and future threats in the West Africa region, the President said “addressing security issues cannot be business as usual,” and “government has thus approved the expansion of the Ghana Armed Forces to cater for these threats.”
“The strategic expansion and modernisation of the Ghana Armed Forces in line with the threat analysis and the acquisition of the requisite equipment, logistics, infrastructure development and increase in manpower are being pursued vigorously,” he said.
As part of efforts to enhance operational capability, combat efficiency and logistical capacity of the Armed Forces, he indicated that “measures have been put in furtherance of restructuring and retooling,” adding “we are determined to equip our Armed Forces to deal with the contemporary threats in the region as well as other internal security challenges and contain security threats from violent extremists and terrorist groups along our northern borders.”
So far, he said “additional bases, specialised units, and brigades have been created with the acquisition of requisite equipment to enhance operations, particularly, along our northern frontiers.”
Also, he said “the construction and equipping of 15 Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) across our northern frontiers for the Armed Forces for the Northern Border Project are on track.”
“These FOBs include FOB Dollar Power, FOB Hamile, FOB Tumu, FOB Navrongo, FOB Bawku, FOB Nalerigu, FOB Bongurugu, FOB Saboba, FOB Bimbilla, FOB Damango, FOB Bole, FOB Jirapa, Forward Logistical Base at Wa, Forward Logistical Base at Bolgatanga and Main Logistical Base at Tamale,” the President said.
In all, 161 officer cadets graduated into fully fledged officers of the prestigious Ghana Armed Forces.
They include 113 from the Army, 23 from the Navy, 20 from the Airforce, and five Overseas Trained Cadets.
The Ghana Military Academy (GMA) was established on April 1, 1960 after years of reliance on foreign military academies to commission potential Ghanaian Officers for the Ghana Armed Forces.
Since its establishment, the Academy has produced over 3,500 Ghanaian Officers. Some have retired while the rest are now serving in various capacities in the Armed Forces and in the country as a whole.
BY Charles Takyi-Boadu