Defence minister urges troops to be "perpetually alert"

Dr Kwame Addo Kufuor, Minister of Defence, on Thursday urged the military to be perpetually alert to protect the nation from active threats along her land and maritime borders.

He said much as the nation has no territorial ambition nor any intentions of interfering in the internal affairs of neighbouring states, active threats like smuggling, illegal arms trade, occasional border demarcation problems, armed infiltrators, massive poaching of her maritime resources by foreign travellers demand that the Armed Forces assume a posture of "perpetual alertness."

Dr Addo Kufuor made the call in Accra at lecture at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College on the topic: "Defence and Wider Government Policy."

The Minister said although it is the cardinal duty for the Armed Forces to ensure that Ghana did not become subservient to any other nation and her people were free, the cardinal duty of the survival of the state as an independent sovereign nation should not be viewed predominantly as military or police problem.

"It should rather be regarded in its broader meaning, which encompasses political, economic, social and environmental concerns of the people."

Citing events in Sierra Leone, Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo as examples, the Defence Minister called for adequate protection of Ghana's minerals.

"Nations endowed with rich resources but which are without developed state institutions to protect them act like magnets, attracting bandits, mercenaries, rebels, criminals and other lawless people in search of plunder."

Dr Addo Kufuor said even within her limited resources, if Ghana does nothing to help stem the tide of conflicts in the sub-region, she herself will be overwhelmed by the chaos and anarchy from these conflicts and might go the way of her unfortunate neighbours.

He said the end of the Cold War coupled with the economic reforms in Eastern Europe have contributed to increased marginalisation of Africa and reduced her external inflows.

Dr Addo Kufuor said Africa is in a dilemma. She is faced with the choice of either globalisation, for which she is not adequately prepared, or marginalisation, which would deprive her of the benefits available in the global village.

He asked the Armed Forces to understand the dilemma and adopt a positive attitude to democratic governance and rule of law, saying this could help African societies develop guidelines to take their rightful place in the wider world.

Dr Addo Kufuor drew a correlation between timeframe, peace and stability in developing the human resources of a country and overall national development

and warned against military coups and interference, which scare away foreign direct investment (FDI).

The Defence Minister again emphasized that while everything about the military could not be made public, its budget must be read on the floor of Parliament and the Ministry of Defence must take the Parliamentary Committee on Defence into confidence on several issues.

"However, for the sake of national security, such items as guns, ammunition weapons, aircraft and other military sensitive items must be kept secret."

During question and answer time the Minister agreed with the officers on the need to organise periodic and frequent interactions with and education for the media on military practices to ensure objective and fair reportage on the military's activities.