Exposure of the military in civilian affairs should be minimised — Defence Minister
On February 13, 2025, 1:08 AM
Dr Edward Omane Boamah, the Minister of Defence, has highlighted the need not to overexpose the military in civilian affairs because it defeats their constitutional mandate of protecting the country’s territorial integrity from external aggressors.
He said their limited engagement was necessary to keep the relationship between the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and the civilian population healthy.
The Minister, at a meeting with more than 30 journalists who form the Defence Press Corp (DPC) in Accra, dismissed the use of the military at the least stress or commotion instead of using the police whose duty was to deal with such situations.
“…I have always said that how many times do we nd a soldier holding a handcuff? Per, their training, arrest is not even part of what they are supposed to do. If they are to arrest, they may even call it capture. Because of this background, they are not supposed to be the day-to-day human resource in the security service that we should be deploying at the least stress…,” he said.
“…We believe the Ghana Police has enough men and women, well trained with some of them having specialised training to be able to maintain peace, law and order. Let’s try as much as possible to leave the Ghana Armed Forces shut from these not too threatening events.”
Dr Omane Boamah spoke of plans to complete unfinished projects, which were begun by his predecessors, including solving the over 17,000 accommodation deficits faced by GAF and refurbishing dilapidated accommodation within the various barracks.
He explained that the Minister would derive innovative ways of financing projects, thus minimising the reliance on the public-private partnership module that had been utilised for a long time.
“We will build on the successes of our predecessors, so that the Ghana Armed Forces will be highly motivated, very well trained as we know them to be, and the expansion and the modernisation of the Ghana Armed Forces will continue,” he said.
Mr Joseph Gold Armstrong-Alorgbey, the Dean of the Defence Press Corp, petitioned the Minister to assist the Corp to acquire a common identity card.
That, he noted, would help journalists to gain easy access to the various units and installations to facilitate their work.
He urged the Minister to ensure quarterly familiarisation and educational tours as well as get-togethers were oganised for the DPC to get acquainted with some of the infrastructure, names, usage and purpose of some logistics to make their work easier as defence correspondents.
“Once in a while, a small get-together for us as a team will be appreciated. This year we are trying to bring ourselves together and visit some units across board. I shared with General Kwesi that once in a while or every three months, lets travel to Michelle Camp, spend two days there and get to know the equipment they use and some of the activities they are involved in,” he said.
The Former Dean, Ko Ampeah-Woode, appealed for nancial assistance for the group such as health insurance scheme and sitting stipends to assist members in the duties.
