Ghana provides training for Sierra Leone Military Officers

Thirty Military Officers from Sierra Leone on Thursday graduated from the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC) after undergoing a 12-week Special Staff Course at Teshie, near Accra. The course was to make the officers to understand clearly the role of the military and their own responsibility toward supporting democratic values of their country.

The Special Staff Course, which is the third in a series organised by the GAFCSC for Officers from Sierra Leone, is collaboration between the governments of Ghana, Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom.

The students undertaking the course are expected to be Junior Staff Officers of Captain or equivalent rank. It is to equip them to make positive and informed contributions at Sub-Unit Command Level to advise their superiors and to make them competent in staff appointments. It was first organised in June 2000 by the British Military Advisory Training Team (BMATT) for West Africa at GAFCSC.

Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister of Information and Presidential Affairs, who was the guest of honour, lauded the peace and stability Ghana has been able to attain and maintain, saying, "without peace and stability, nothing else is possible".

He said Sierra Leoneans, like Ghanaians, have chosen multi-party democracy as their preferred method of government and praised the smooth elections that closely followed the disarmament, demobilisation and re-integration of ex-combatants. "We all must now make the democracy work", he said.

Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey told the officers that their training should make them ambassadors of their country and that they should hold themselves in the proudest traditions of the military for their professionalism to be an example for their fellow countrymen and women.

He told them that the perception of soldiers as molesters should give way to an image of the military as the guardian of national and individual liberties and rights. "Given the events and effects of the tragic civil war, you have a great burden in this area. You will need to play a positive role in building a reliable civil/military relations," he told them. He tasked the graduates to go back to their country as "healers" and "unifiers" and to utilise their training for the good of their nation.

The Minister presented awards to students, who excelled in the course. The Overall and second best student award went to Flight Lieutenant Michael Kamara and Flight Lieutenant Hassan Coomber respectively, while the third best student award went to Captain Seidu Conteh.