End of road for 420 recruits
Lt. Gen. J.H. Smith (Rtd)-Defence Minister A final decision to abort the recruitment exercise of 420 young Ghanaians into the Ghana Armed Forces has been taken, ending a long period of sitting in limbo by the potential recruits and media bickering.
Information gleaned from the General Headquarters of the Ghana Armed Forces, Burma Camp, and signed by a certain Adjutant, Group Captain E. Asare-Yeboah suggests that the exercise was finally aborted because of certain anomalies.
A portion of the correspondence on the cancelled recruitment italicized for emphasis reads: “In view of the gross anomaly and flawed procedures, the 2008 recruitment is declared null and void. There will be no recruitment in 2009.”
The aborted recruitment is now before Parliament as a question has been fired to the Defence Minister by the MP for Nkoranza North, Major Derek Oduro (rtd).
There would be no recruitment this year and funds which should have gone into the training of the 420 potential recruits would now be used for the renovation of the training centres, DAILY GUIDE has learnt.
Enlistment procedures to be reviewed include educational qualification, composition of boards/sub-boards and processing of application forms among others.
The reviewed procedures would be arrived at in consultation with Service Commanders - Navy, Army and Air Force - Director General, Logistics and Director, Finance Corps.
This information was contained in a restricted circular originating from the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Maj Gen P.A. Blay.
The final approved procedures would then be distributed to the headquarters of the various arms of the military and the Director of Manpower and Personnel by 1st October, 2009.
The recruitment exercise of the young persons which span over weeks as it involved body selection, medical examination among others sparked controversy when the potential recruits were told after they had assembled at the El Wak Stadium to be conveyed to the Shai Hills Army Recruit Training Centre that the programme could not come on.
Coming within weeks of the assumption of power by the Mills-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, the subject attracted copious political coloration.
Some of the potential recruits had come from as far afield as Tamale, Bawku and other parts of the country and the news that they had to return home at the time was unbearable for them.
The aborted recruitment has proved to be the most controversial and abrasive in the history of the Ghanaian military.
Following the controversy generated by the cancellation, the former Director of Manpower at the General Headquarters, Col Kwadwo Damoah, raised objection about certain aspects of the rejected exercise.
A committee set up to look into the matter was reconstituted upon an objection raised by Col Damoah.
Col Musa Ibrahim, Provost Marshal was tasked to chair the deliberations of the committee. Col Damoah whose position on the burgeoning controversy and his subsequent drop from his post made the headlines is currently sitting in limbo as he awaits his fate from the military high command, which has decided to offload him from the service.
The media had speculated earlier about his imminent dismissal from the defence machine but to date, such a decision has not been communicated to the officer yet.
Political observers find the cancellation of the recruitment exercise unusual, hinging their argument on the fact that it happened soon after the NDC had assumed power.
The military, through its Directorate of Public Relations, has time without number sought to parry such arguments, stating that in the Ghana Armed Forces such considerations have no place.
The position of the military is however clamouring for consideration as opponents of the argument think that there is everything political about the cancellation because it took place soon after the assumption of power by the NDC.
Shortly before the last general elections in the country, ex-President Jerry John Rawlings raised a red flag over what he considered a lopsided recruitment disadvantageous to the Volta Region. The military high command was compelled to respond to the charge by publishing the distribution of officers and men in the military according to their regions of origin.
By A.R. Gomda