'Don't stage coups'-Obasanjo, Friday, September 3, 2010, pg 19
A Former Nigerian President, Lt General Olusegun Obasanjo, has advised African soldiers against any temptation to pick up guns under the cover of darkness to overthrow any democratic regime.
Speaking at a panel discussion in Accra, Gen Obasanjo advised young and aspiring military officers that “if you want to be a politician, retire and get elected”.
A former military dictator who got elected as a democratic civilian leader of Africa’s most populous country, President Obasanjo said as the process of democratisation deepened, the military’s leadership training must now shift towards fighting the real threats to democracy and good governance, which can jeopardise national development in the 21st century.
The topic for the panel discussion was: “Turning out quality military leaders for the 21st century — A re-appraisal of the leadership training”. It was held at the Burma Hall in Accra as part of activities marking the Golden Jubilee of the Ghana Military Academy (GMA).
The GMA has over the last 50 years been at the forefront of training the top brass of the military in Ghana and other African countries.
Other contributors to the discussion were Prof. Kofi Kumado, a former Director of the Legon Centre for International Affairs (LECIA); Rear Admiral J.Y. Addo, a retired Naval officer, and Dr Kwesi Anning, the Director of Research at the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Centre (KAIPKC).
Former President Obasanjo, who was the guest of honour for the programme and an alumnus of the GMA, commended Ghana’s marvellous history in peacekeeping operations and called for the strengthening of such activities in accordance with the new complex missions that the country’s security forces engaged in.
He also called for the review, as a matter of necessity, of the infrastructure and course content of the various military training institutions in the country to make the training more relevant to modern times.
Military leadership, he noted, in “these changing times advocates a myriad of leadership modules in order to adapt to the current fluid security environment”.
He stated that a more pragmatic approach must be adopted if leadership training was to reflect the transformation in the quality of leadership, adding that it was imperative that the GAF command changed the prevailing training modules to keep in tune with the ever dynamic world.
Prof. Kumado called for a training regime for the military that would ensure that the armed forces, as an institution, became and remained one of the pillars of constitutional democracy in the country.
He said in that regard, the training should develop strategies which deepen civil/military relations and, in particular, instil in the trainees unalloyed acceptance of the principle of the subordination of the military to civilian rule.
He said to position the GAF to be effective agents for peace and security, whether at the local or international level, the training programmes of the GMA and the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC) should be redesigned in such a way that every officer before deployment would have postgraduate qualifications which are products of a training regime which balanced military and non-military disciplines.
Dr Anning, for his part, called on the military to wean itself from political control. He condemned the situation where the country’s internal political process, dominated by tenure-bound partisan political regimes that mostly lacked the insights of sustainable security and relies on hints and hearsay, killed promising careers within the military.
He stated that if the military did not find means to deal with the ‘tit-for-tat’ game that was driven by the zeal to please politicians, who had a maximum of eight years in office, the military could never play its role effectively as expected.
Among the personalities who graced the occasion were the Minister of Defence, Lt Gen Joseph Henry Smith (rtd); the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), Lt Gen Peter A. Blay, serving chiefs of the GAF, some retired top brass of the military and some alumni of the GMA.
Speaking at a panel discussion in Accra, Gen Obasanjo advised young and aspiring military officers that “if you want to be a politician, retire and get elected”.
A former military dictator who got elected as a democratic civilian leader of Africa’s most populous country, President Obasanjo said as the process of democratisation deepened, the military’s leadership training must now shift towards fighting the real threats to democracy and good governance, which can jeopardise national development in the 21st century.
The topic for the panel discussion was: “Turning out quality military leaders for the 21st century — A re-appraisal of the leadership training”. It was held at the Burma Hall in Accra as part of activities marking the Golden Jubilee of the Ghana Military Academy (GMA).
The GMA has over the last 50 years been at the forefront of training the top brass of the military in Ghana and other African countries.
Other contributors to the discussion were Prof. Kofi Kumado, a former Director of the Legon Centre for International Affairs (LECIA); Rear Admiral J.Y. Addo, a retired Naval officer, and Dr Kwesi Anning, the Director of Research at the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Centre (KAIPKC).
Former President Obasanjo, who was the guest of honour for the programme and an alumnus of the GMA, commended Ghana’s marvellous history in peacekeeping operations and called for the strengthening of such activities in accordance with the new complex missions that the country’s security forces engaged in.
He also called for the review, as a matter of necessity, of the infrastructure and course content of the various military training institutions in the country to make the training more relevant to modern times.
Military leadership, he noted, in “these changing times advocates a myriad of leadership modules in order to adapt to the current fluid security environment”.
He stated that a more pragmatic approach must be adopted if leadership training was to reflect the transformation in the quality of leadership, adding that it was imperative that the GAF command changed the prevailing training modules to keep in tune with the ever dynamic world.
Prof. Kumado called for a training regime for the military that would ensure that the armed forces, as an institution, became and remained one of the pillars of constitutional democracy in the country.
He said in that regard, the training should develop strategies which deepen civil/military relations and, in particular, instil in the trainees unalloyed acceptance of the principle of the subordination of the military to civilian rule.
He said to position the GAF to be effective agents for peace and security, whether at the local or international level, the training programmes of the GMA and the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC) should be redesigned in such a way that every officer before deployment would have postgraduate qualifications which are products of a training regime which balanced military and non-military disciplines.
Dr Anning, for his part, called on the military to wean itself from political control. He condemned the situation where the country’s internal political process, dominated by tenure-bound partisan political regimes that mostly lacked the insights of sustainable security and relies on hints and hearsay, killed promising careers within the military.
He stated that if the military did not find means to deal with the ‘tit-for-tat’ game that was driven by the zeal to please politicians, who had a maximum of eight years in office, the military could never play its role effectively as expected.
Among the personalities who graced the occasion were the Minister of Defence, Lt Gen Joseph Henry Smith (rtd); the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), Lt Gen Peter A. Blay, serving chiefs of the GAF, some retired top brass of the military and some alumni of the GMA.
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