Exercise restraint with civilians - NCCE appeals to Armed Forces
Members of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) have been urged to exercise greater degree of restraint when dealing with provocations by civilians.
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A Deputy Commissioner of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Samuel Asare Akuamoah, who gave the advice, said that was because the military had access to sophisticated weapons which civilians did not and, therefore, succumbing to those provocations could further exacerbate the confrontations.
“All we are saying is, to whom much is given, much is expected.
You should exercise a lot of restraint and not let anything distract you from the performance of your constitutional duties which is to defend the territorial integrity of Ghana”, he stressed.
Mr Akuamoah gave the advice yesterday when the NCCE engaged the GAF in an open forum as part of its annual Constitution Week celebration.
Event
The Constitution Week celebration is one of the flagship programmes instituted in 2001 to commemorate the country's return to constitutional democratic rule.
This year’s activities was on the theme: "Thirty Years of Consolidating Constitutional Democracy: Building National Cohesion through Civic Education and Participation in Local Governance”.
The forum brought together many members of the GAF, including senior officers who used the opportunity to ask questions and air their grievances.
It was chaired by the Director General of Human Resources of the GAF, Brigadier General Michael Opoku.
Message to civilians
Mr Akuamoah, who is the Deputy Commissioner in charge of Operations, equally appealed to the civilian population to desist from engaging in activities that would put them in direct confrontation with the military and further provoke them.
“Civilians must also remember that the military are also human beings and citizens of the land who are entitled to the fundamental human rights and freedoms that the Constitution has given to all of us and should not push them to the brink where they would demonstrate any excesses in the performance of their duties”, he explained.
He commended the GAF for playing an integral role in ensuring that the Fourth Republican Constitution had thrived for three decades by subordinating themselves to civilian rule and not attempting to interfere in the governance of the country.
Unfair treatment
For his part, Brigadier General Opoku urged the media to be fair in their reportage with regard to military-civilian confrontations and not to only listen to one side of the story and painted the military black at all times.
He said such unfair treatments from the media and the general public in the past had factored chiefly in some of the military uprisings which subsequently led to coups.
Brigadier General Opoku, however, said the military was committed to abiding by the Constitution and their obligation to protect the country from external attacks and would consistently do their part towards the socio-economic development of the country.