Having exposed the lies and vicious ethnocentric sentiments of the NDC as far as postings, appointments and promotions of officers are concerned in the Ghana Armed Forces during the reign of His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, we wish to suspend our discussions on that subject, for the time being, in order to deal with an equally very dangerous false accusation on recruitment in the same NDC newspapers.
The same concocted story of “Akufo-Addo’s stinking Akanisation of Armed Forces (Part 1)” carried false accusations against the Minister of Defence and the Chief of Defence Staff as key players in the ethnocentric agenda of the NPP in allowing massive “Akanisation” of the Ghana Armed Forces.
As usual the NDC is being haunted by the ghosts of their unconscionable behavior, conduct and reckless disregard for laid down processes and procedures in the recruitment and enlistment of personnel into the Ghana Armed Forces. The NDC was seriously afraid of a “retaliation” by the NPP Administration of His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo owing to the manner in which they behaved in January and February 2009 by initially suspending and finally cancelling the recruit training of four hundred and twenty (420) qualified Ghanaians who had been invited by the Army Headquarters for training at the Army Recruit Training School (ARTS) at Shai Hills.
The act of suspending and cancelling the recruit training of those poor innocent Ghanaians was done in a very callous and unprofessional manner in order to satisfy some never do wells in the NDC.
It was done to “show power” and provide employment for the foot-soldiers who had been used in the December 2008 Presidential and Parliamentary elections. It gave the NDC an opportunity to victimize Lieutenant General JB Danquah and Colonel K Damoah whose insistence on the policy of Regional Balance and Gender Balance in the Ghana Armed Forces had incurred the wrath of the Lawsons, Dovlos, Gbekles, Adokpas, Komlagas, Nibos, Senchims, Akou-Adjeis, Leba-Kamanyas, Nyakas, Ntems, Asems, Adetis, Fianyas, Datsas, Biekros, EMK-Yeboahs, Gborglahs, Allohs, Beick-Baffours, Kporkus, Fiawoos, Adalibans, Edjeanis, Boimahs and Ahiaglos, among several others, who are extremely myopic and ethnocentric.
No sooner had Professor JEA Mills taken over as the President of the Republic than these hawks started their diabolical plans of getting rid of Lieutenant General JB Danquah and Colonel K Damoah in order to pave the way for them to inundate the Ghana Armed Forces with Ewes and Northerners. This agenda had been on the drawing board and in the plan since the era of General EK Kotoka.
They had managed to use their numerical superiority in the PNDC and NDC 1 of President Rawlings to recruit Ewes and Northerners massively into the Ghana Armed Forces. The records are there for verification. Most of the officers who were recruited or enlisted between January 1982 and January 2001 are predominantly Ewes and Northerners. We shall publish the names of all the officers concerned serially as long as the NDC continues to make these unfounded, vicious and destructive allegations against His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo, the Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General OB Akwa and Honourable Dominic Nitiwul, the Defence Minister.
It is therefore not surprising that rank by rank from levels of Brigadier Generals and equivalents downwards to Colonels and equivalents through Lieutenant Colonels and equivalents to Majors and equivalents in the Navy and Airforce, Ewes and Northerners dominate all the three Services, Bases, Commands, Departments, Directorates, Units and Sub-units of the Ghana Armed Forces. Yet, they falsely accuse the NPP of stinking Akanisation.
The problem is alarming owing to the fact that an absolute majority of these Ewes and Northerners are members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). These officers meet at various locations to strategize and provide support for the NDC. These officers teamed or have teamed up with some Akan officers such as the Boampongs, Nyamekye-Yeboahs, Asamoah Yeboahs, Painstils, Nkansahs, Agyekums, Agyei-Frimpongs, Arhins, Awittys, Andohs, Oforis, Adus, Hawas, Hagans and several others to frustrate, antagonize, victimize and humiliate Akan officers, Ewe officers and Northern officers considered to be sympathetic to the NPP.
That explains why the likes of Brigadier General Yakubu and Colonel J Aphour were marginalized during the eight-year rule of the NDC and especially the four-and-half-year rule of former President John Mahama. As Northerners, one would have expected that these professionally upright officers would have been promoted during the era of President John Mahama alongside their Intake Mates or colleagues. But that did not happen. Their promotions to the rank of Colonels were delayed. It was only when the NPP came to power that then Colonel Yakubu got appointed as the Commander Ghana Military Academy with the commensurate rank of Brigadier General.
As for Colonel JA Aphour since the date that he was removed from Command as the Commanding Officer of the 6th Battalion of Infantry, Tamale, he has been groping in the dark. The NDC governments of Professor Mills and John Mahama treated him as an outcast just because he was given command appointment during the regime of President JA Kufuor.
Today, the NDC is claiming to be championing the cause of “Northerners” in addition to their traditional Ewe Allies. The Andy Kankams and Koku Anyidohos want the whole world, and in particular the military fraternity, to know that they are more concerned about the well-being, welfare and interests of Northerners more than any other party, especially the NPP.
Unfortunately, the facts on the grounds do not support those assertions. The truth of the matter is that the Ewes use the Northerners and dump them thereafter. Yet they rather accuse the Akans of using the Northerners and dumping them. But thanks to the Almighty God, the election of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to the high office of Vice President and his eventual elevation to the seat of President in January 2025 (Insha Allah) would put to rest the persistent attempt by the NDC to pitch Akans against Ewes and Northerners on one hand and Akans against Akans on the other hand. Try as the NDC would, they would not succeed and their tribal and ethnic wars would be exercises of futility as more and more Ghanaians become more and more discerning.
The era where Ghanaians swallowed all the gossips, propaganda and lies of the NDC are incrementally giving way to an era of proper interrogation of issues and rationalization of facts and figures.
We state very categorically, here and then, that the assertion of the NDC that “Records have it that, persons who went through all the necessary recruitment procedures in 2016 and were shortlisted for recruit training at Asutsuare, Shai Hills and other Training Centers, have been put on waiting lists, and have been replaced by NPP apparatchiks who were handpicked and did not go through any screening exercises contrary to the laid-down rules and regulations of the Armed Forces” is not true and is only a figment of reckless imagination.
Again, the assertion that “Also, the 2017 recruitment has been consciously and deliberately skewed to ensure that over 80% of the recruitment favours only Akans” is maliciously and dangerously false. It only shows what the NDC was doing when they were in power between January 2009 and January 2017.
The usual trait of the NDC is that they always accuse their political opponents of what they (the NDC) would do if they were in power. No rational right thinking person will think of recruiting over 80% of personnel as Akans into the Ghana Armed Forces. It is not possible for the NPP that believes in the rule of law to do that. Because the NDC is able to recruit over 80% of people of the Volta and Northern Regions into the Ghana Armed Forces for any batch into the Army, Navy or Airforce and other Security Services they fear that the NPP would do the same by recruiting over 80% Akans to the detriment of all the other Regions (or tribes as the NDC prefers to call them).
There is no doubt that the other major ethnic groups who are spread all over the various Regions of Ghana would always constitute close to, or, even in some cases, more than half of the persons selected for military training. There is no doubt that more Ewes (Voltarians) and Northerners may, in some cases, apply for recruitment or enlistment into the Ghana Armed Forces than the Akans.
Consequently no deliberate, conscious effort may enable those at the helm of affairs in the military to recruit over 80% Akans of any batch into the Ghana Armed Forces. Where transparent processes and procedures of recruitment are employed, as the NPP does, it can never be possible to achieve those targets especially in this era of higher figures of unemployment inherited from the NDC government of John Mahama where sizeable numbers of youth from all the ten (10) regions are scrambling for the limited vacancies in the Security Services and other public services.
The NDC had run down the private sector which could provide more job/employment opportunities than the public sector. Owing to their mismanagement of the economy, through incompetence and corruption, the NDC has worsened the unemployment situation in Ghana. A lot of companies left the shores of Ghana for even war torn countries such as Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The NDC had mismanaged the energy sector, the economy and the banking sector to the extent that electricity bills and interest rates had become unbearable to most of the companies. These have worsened the already precarious rate of unemployment in the country.
Unnecessary pressure is now mounting on the Security Services (the Military, Police, Immigration, Fire Service, Prisons Service and the Ghana Revenue Authority) to employ high numbers into their systems. So many people, therefore, apply to enter the Ghana Armed Forces. Whereas the Ghana Armed Forces may be able to take only, say, two thousand (2000) potential recruits per year, the number that applies successfully exceeds forty (40) thousand.
Thus, those who receive “Qualified” on their Application Summary Sheets alone are over forty thousand while over twenty thousand (20,000) also are in the category of “NOT QUALIFIED”. It is these huge numbers that are making the NDC falsely believe that persons shortlisted for the 2016 recruitment exercises have been put on waiting lists and have been replaced by NPP apparatchiks who were handpicked.
This allegation is a repetition of the NDC’s drama in January and February 2009 when the 420 Potential Army Recruits, who had been carefully shortlisted based on reasonable regional and gender balances, were dropped and in their places, NDC apparatchiks who were handpicked without going through the mandatory screening exercises, contrary to the laid-down rules and regulations of the Armed Forces, were sent for training at Asutsuare, Shai Hills and other Training Centers.
It is interesting to note that the NDC trained recruits of the Ghana Armed Forces, National Security and other Security Services at various locations within and outside the Security Services and their installations. The major criterion that the NDC used in selecting people for the training in the Ghana Armed Forces, Security Services and public services is membership of or association with the NDC.
Thus, throughout the eight years of Mills and Mahama, the NDC consistently and persistently pushed its members, supporters and affiliates aggressively into the Security Services and the public services. Because the NDC used that strategy ignoring merit, qualifications and character, the NDC fears that the NPP would do same hence the unfounded allegations and irresponsible accusations against the NPP.
The NDC should be very grateful to His Excellency President Nana Akufo-Addo for directing that all persons (indeed Ghanaians) on standby for training into the Security Service and public services as at January 2017 should be allowed to go for the training without any political interference. Therefore, even though the 2016 last batch of potential recruits were yet to undergo medical examinations as at 7th January 2017, the process was only put on hold for a while during the Transitional Period but was allowed to proceed without any hindrance.
Consequently, all the 2016 potential recruits who were to go through the final stages of the selection process were given the chance to do so. Some of them have already reported for training at the Army Training School at Shai Hills, Naval Training Schools at Tema and Sekondi Takoradi. The last groups of the 2016 potential recruits are standing by to report for training any moment in November or December, 2017 alongside some of the 2017 potential recruits.
Obviously, this situation cannot be compared to that of the NDC in 2009. What the NDC has refused or failed to disclose is the fact that the cancellation of the training of the 420 Army Potential Recruits was only a tip of the iceberg. The Army had two batches of about eight hundred (in the least) or one thousand (in the most) to train in 2009. The figure 420 was only for the First Batch of the Army. Because the figure 420 included females, the second batch could have accommodated about 480 or more as it would not have included females as the practice was at that time.
Additionally, another figure of three hundred Airforce potential recruits where shortlisted by the Airforce Headquarters, on the advice of the office of the Director Manpower Planning of General Headquarters (Personnel Administration), for training at Takoradi in February 2009.
We are glad to inform our readers that we have a copy of that list and may wish to publish it alongside that of the 420 Army Potential Recruits of the First Batch in 2009. It was very surprising and worrying that even though Air Vice Marshal JO Boateng was still then the Chief of Air Staff (with Rear Admiral Nuno as the Acting Chief of Defence Staff) and had given approval for the three hundred (300) potential recruits to report for training at Takoradi, then Air Commodore CEK. Dovlo and the Fianyas, Datsas and Lawsons cancelled that training as well.
In their places, the NDC handpicked their favorites, foot-soldiers, supporters, members, affiliates and their relations for training. And today, the Lawsons and Adorkors are spreading false information everywhere. As if that was not enough, personnel selected for the Ghana Navy numbering about three hundred were also dropped and in their places were put the NDC handpicked apparatchiks.
Our research showed that in January 2009, the Ghana Navy managed to train some potential recruits at Tema and Sekondi alright. But these recruits were those recruited for the year 2007. The Army and the Airforce had managed to train all their 2007 potential recruits in 2008.
Unfortunately, the Ghana Navy could not do so. It only managed to do it in early January 2009. The Navy’s share of the 2008 recruitment exercise were also on standby and were to undertake medical examinations after the Second Batch of the Army’s Potential Recruits had completed their medical examinations at the 37 Military Hospital.
As a matter of fact, our investigations revealed that personnel of the Second Batch of the Army had started documentation for medical examinations in February 2009 when the exercise was stopped by then Air Commodore CEK Dovlo, who was the Director General Personnel Administration until 12th May 2009 when he was appointed the Commandant KAIPTC and promoted to the rank of Air Vice Marshal. Air Vice Marshal Dovlo did not appreciate the efforts and good intentions of Air Vice Marshal JO Boateng who as the Chief of Air Staff promoted him (then Group Captain CEK Dovlo) to the rank of Air Commodore when it was obvious that as an officer of the Adminstration Branch of the Airforce, he was going to retire at the rank of Group Captain at the age of fifty seven (57) years.
Group Captain LE Dwamena-Mante, who originally was senior to Group Captain Dovlo, was not considered for promotion to the rank of Air Commodore. He was rather made the Deputy to the Director General of Personnel Administration then Air Commodore CEK Dovlo. How wrong that decision was to be judging from later developments!
The intention of the CDS, General JB Danquah and the Chief of Air Staff, AVM JO Boateng, was to broaden the base of promotions to take into account other Branches and Arms of Services other than the Executive, Pilots, Teeth Arms (Infantry, Combat Sp Arms ) for the Navy, Airforce and the Army respectively. It was also the policy of the Military High Command at the time to use the regional balance to get officers from as many regions as possible to climb to the highest possible ranks in the hierarchy.
It was as a result of the combined effects of all those aims and objectives of the then Military High Command that the Dovlos, Searyohs and Agbenuzahs got promotions to the rank of Brigadier General and equivalents.
Unfortunately, because the Dwamena-Mantes were Akans, they were to remain at their ranks as Group Captains while the Dovlos were projected and promoted Air Commodores.
In the case of Group Captain LE Dwamena-Mante, his former boss, Air Commodore CEK Dovlo, was very instrumental in getting him dropped as the Deputy Defence Military Naval and Air attaches to the USA. That is how man can be wicked to a fellow human being!!
Air Commodore Dovlo could not be bothered about the suffering and injustices that Group Captain Dwamena-Mante had endured by serving under him, Dovlo, a former junior and ethnocentric officer for all those years.
As for the 2017 enlistment and recruitment exercises the least said about them the better. The exercises had begun in December 2016 and January 2017 respectively.
For instance, the publication for the enlistment of officers was made on 10th December, 2016, a day after His Excellency Nana Akufo- Addo had been declared President- elect by the Electoral Commission.
Applicants started submitting their applications before the NPP took over power in January 2017. At that time a purely 100% Ewe and NDC Army officer, Colonel SK Adorkor, was in charge of the Directorate of Manpower Planning. In spite of the fact that the political pendulum had swung to the direction of the NPP, Colonel SK Adorkor continued his business as usual in the interest of the NDC. Several Akan officers were deliberately not shortlisted for the first phase of the process thereby denying them the opportunity to compete with others for the limited vacancies.
Notwithstanding this obvious injustice and ethnocentrism, political victimization, President Akufo- Addo, unlike the Mills/Mahama Administration, allowed the process to be continued.
As for the false accusation that “for the first time in the history of GMA a thirty- year- old (name withheld for now) is under training as a Regular Cadet Officer”, we may only accept it, at best as a justifiable aberration of exceptional circumstances for the time being and would challenge the NDC to provide all the necessary documentation on that individual.
It may interest the NDC to know that, Colonel Joseph Vander-Pallen, a 100% dyed in wool NDC member, has at all material times, since 7th January 2009, been in charge of documentation. Colonel Vander-Pallen is still at post and is the one who was, and still is, responsible for those matters. All calls for his removal for long stay in office, politicization of the recruitment and enlistment exercises, discrimination in promotions of Other Ranks and several other malpractices, omissions and infractions have been ignored by the Akufo-Addo Administration as they do not want direct interference in the affairs of the military as the NDC has always been doing.
It may be of interest to the NDC to know that as at date, Colonel J Vander-Pallen has usurped the powers of the Director of Manpower Planning with the support of the Service Chiefs, who were initially appointed by the NDC and confirmed by His Excellency Nana Addo Akufo- Addo.
Colonel J Vander-Pallen in collaboration with the Schedule Officers at the three Service Headquarters, who are all dyed in wool NDC members, ensured that most of the potential recruits selected at the various regional levels are NDC members, sympathizers, supporters, affiliates and relations. Because no changes were made to the appointments made by President Mahama on 1st July 2016 and 2nd November 2016, the 2017 recruitment (under the reign of Nana Akufo-Addo) was hijacked by the NDC.
Staff officers at the Flagstaff House, the Presidency, Ministers of Sate, Members of Parliament, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives were, rightly, ignored by the Regional Recruitment Selection Teams. Surprisingly, however, the NDC former Ministers, Members of Parliament, MMDCEs and serving Members of Parliament managed to influence the selection process. Because they had been known for years by members of the Selection Teams, as opposed to the new NPP appointees who were relatively unknown, the former government appointees had their favorites shortlisted for the subsequent stages of the selection process.
For instance, Team leaders were given “lists” from Accra, Base and Command levels to ensure their short-listing to the next stages. In some cases the names on such lists exceeded the overall vacancies for those regions.
The Regions that were affected most were the Akan dominated Regions of Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Central, Eastern and Western Regions. These pieces of evidence are available for verification. And again, it is still Colonel J Vander-Pallen who is calling the shots to the astonishment of members of the Patriotic Concerned Officers and Men (PACOM).
Could this happen under the administration of the NDC?
Over to you Brigadier General Emmanuel Okyere and co!!!
