The Vice President, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has called on newly graduated Officers of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC) to uphold integrity, foresight, adaptability and commitment to the greater good as they step into leadership roles.
She said this when she addressed the Joint Graduation ceremony of the Senior Command and Staff Course 46, after successfully completing 48 weeks of intensive academic work in Master of Science in Defence and International Politics (MDIP) and Master of Science in Security Studies (MSS) in Accra on Friday.
The Vice President, who is also Chairperson of the Armed Forces Council, congratulated the graduands which comprised 67 Officers from the Ghana Armed Forces, and 30 Officers from 15 allied African countries, including Benin, Botswana, La Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo and Zambia.
In addition, 43 participants from the public and civil services, private sector, and sister security institutions also graduated.
Vice President Opoku-Agyemang said the diversity of the class had created a unique learning environment where cultural perspectives were shared, building friendships and networks that should be nurtured beyond the college.
She highlighted the security challenges confronting Ghana and the sub-region, such as terrorism, trans-border crime and climate change.
She commended the College for responding with new modules, including Multi-Domain Operations, Future Wars, Digitisation Awareness and Cybersecurity.
She further noted that the introduction of Doctorate and Masters programmes in Defence, International Politics and Security Studies would enhance the capacity of Officers to analyse global events, predict conflicts and take informed strategic decisions.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang praised the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College for maintaining high academic and professional standards despite the increasing number of students.
Brigadier General Jackson Wonje, the Acting Commandant, said the academic programmes were designed to enhance national and regional security governance and also drive the mission of the College in training Military Officers for Command, Staff and leadership functions in joint, combined and multi-agency operations.
The Ag Commandant noted that the College has started a PhD programme in Defence and International Politics and admissions had been completed for the second quarter in addition to their Postgraduate and Masters academic programmes.
The overall best student for the MDIP/MSS class went to Peter Acheampong Nkrumah Nimako, an Intelligence Officer from the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB), with the best dissertation award going to Peter Yandan Ali, a Preventive Officer from the Customs Division, Ghana Revenue Agency.
According to Brigadier General Wonje, all the graduands had successfully met the academic and professional standards required to be awarded the prestigious Pan-Staff College (PSC) symbol.
He stressed that the PSC program has a package where students tour selected African countries to research on contemporary security issues and this year, “the African city tour took students to Liberia, Senegal, Uganda and Zimbabwe to research on the theme: Climate Change, Environmental Security and Development” he added.
The Commandant Research Paper first place winner went to Major PNA Badger, from the Ghana Army-Infantry while Lieutenant Commander EK Adzakloe, of the Ghana Navy-Technical and Squadron Leader CB Jones-Mensah of the Ghana Air Force-Administration, took the second and third place positions respectively.
.The graduands were conferred with MDIP by the President of National Defence University (NDU), Air Vice Marshal Felix Adom Asante, while the Pan-Staff College (PSC) was conferred on regular GAFCSC students by Brigadier General Wonje.
Other Dignitaries present at the ceremony were Deputy Defence Minister, Mr Brogya Genfi, and the Chief of the Defence Staff, Lt Gen. William Agyapong.
BY AGNES OPOKU SARPONG AND VICTOR BUXTON
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