Retired Military men continue to see their status quo as a predicament; a situation which is likely to have dire security implications for Ghana.
rawgist.com’s Bernard Buachi has been spending time with some military retirees who seem to be very unhappy about the poor treatment meted out to retired soldiers in Ghana.
“For the first time in my life, I see former military men embarking on demonstration over our plight and this is not good for this country and especially for its security”, one retired military man explained under anonymity.
Another retired officer explains the nature of training some military retirees have had including deep expertise in counter-insurgence, espionage, tactics and military strategy among several levels of commando training and stresses the need to guard these skills only for the benefit of the country.
ExWO1 Godwin Fialor tells rawgist.com’s Bernard Buachi that the current situation of retired soldiers should be revised immediately as matter of national security so that literally hungry retired soldiers are not forced to exploit their training for personal gains.
“Some individual military men may be questionable by their character but are unable to exhibit their true nature whiles in service due to military discipline. Once they are outside the military environment and meet adverse situations, they become a grave danger to society and they find various justifications in the debilitating status quo”, he explains.
“Imagine what will happen if just one military man decides to pick a handful of youth and train them in various military skills for selfish gains. Do you know what that would mean for this country’s security? Do you know what one well trained military man can do? And yet we leave them to wallow in very sad conditions without any plans to harness their skills”, Mr. Fialor detailed.
He explains that unlike other security forces, members of the Armed Forces (Non-Commissioned Officers) are expected to join at very young ages and forced to retire after 25 years of Service at which time they will be around age 40. By this time, their children may still be in Senior High School or below. He questions how these soldiers are supposed to take care of themselves and their families after that, considering that their years of service are not long enough for them to save enough to initiate significant private business ventures.
“The Police and other security forces retire at 60 and some are even handed government contracts after that, but not the soldier”, he cried.
He makes a comparison with the Military of other developed countries and explains that those countries find elaborate ways to put their retired military men to good use and pay them.
“These retired soldiers (mind you) are not old men. They are barely 40 and still very strong and energetic. They are a colossal time bomb if left to their own devices. That’s why in the US and other nations, they have the reserve forces made up of these retired military men who perform various functions including training military forces in other countries”.
“We live in a country where filth is all over us. Do you know what a handful of retired soldiers can do to the sanitation of this country when organized and put in charge? The nature of our military training makes the military suitable to undertake certain difficult but essential tasks”, he says.
He concedes that a few of them are engaged with NADMO and a few other organizations but that number is very insignificant considering the bigger picture.
ExW01 Godwin Fialor reckons most of the violent crimes that have eluded the Police so far may already have undertones of military expertise offered by some retired military men.
He wants the government to as a matter of urgency take a critical look at the situation of retired military personnel and find ways to make them useful to themselves and their nation.
