Defence Minister, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, has said his Ministry’s funding constraints have not affected the operations of the Ghana Armed Forces.
This follows assertions by Ranking Member of Parliament’s Select Committee on Defence and The Interior, Major Derek Oduro (retired) that the unavailability of resources to the Ministry has contributed to its inability to establish military presence in all the 10 regions of the country to bolster security.
But Dr Kunbuor said Major Oduro’s concern notwithstanding, morale in the Armed Forces was still high.
“I believe that throughout this country we have military presence particularly the Upper East and Upper West regions. There are other places with military presence but cannot be disclosed,” he added.
Speaking to Class News’ parliamentary correspondent, Ekow Annan, Dr Kunbuor said, although the current 3-year IMF programme with the Government of Ghana makes it difficult getting financing, the Ghana Armed Forces has its eyes on the ball.
Responding to whether inadequate finance will not affect the security of the country, he said equipment and finances alone are not the only ways to handle security.
“We have a very high morale which alone is almost 60 per cent of your military capability. We, at least, know we are able to move by land and by sea and by air and that sufficiently gives us the opportunity to be able to deal with it,” he said.
“But as to how you deploy to deal with your national security situation, as the soldiers say, ‘the ground will decide,’” he added.
Dr Kunbuor said, with security issues, one cannot make hypotheses out of them, but gave the assurance that Ghana is properly positioned to be able to deal with anything that comes its way.
Source: GhanaWeb
