The Defense Minister-nominee, Dominic Nitiwul has expressed the intent of the Ghana Armed Forces to encourage female participation in the Forces in a bid to maintain the quality of personnel in the service and recruitment of females.
Speaking before the Appointment Committee on the second day of vetting of ministerial appointees, he stated their recruitment will fundamentally be based on merit bases rather than favoritism or just because they are women.
“It’s a field that you don’t want to do favoritism, you want to make sure that people qualify on merit. So all the women you see today they qualify on merit.
“But there’s a gender desk that we have set up at the Ghana Armed forces; but like I said the females there are not recruited just because they are females; no, they are recruited based on the fact that they are qualified, they are exceptional and they’ve done well”.
Additionally, he noted that the recruitment of women into the Ghana Armed Forces surpasses the United Nations target of 15% women serving in military contingents, further adding that the armed forces will continue to give females needed recognition and percentages they deserve in the recruitment process in order to maintain their numbers at an appreciable standard.
“Ghana has one of the highest in terms of numbers. I’ll not give because there’s a sensitivity of that question. In fact we have actually passed the UN threshold of the ration when it comes to both peacekeeping and people within the military.
“They do a lot of work and they do very, very well when it comes to work of being a soldier and I want to encourage them to continue to avail themselves for the service”.
During his vetting, a question posed on the location of Burma Camp in a civilian expanse drew a response from Mr. Nitiwul who based his argument on the prudence and need to take advantage of the housing project as government is deliberating a move from Burma Camp in the long term.
In his words, the army “will be very happy to be given that particular facility if it is completed”.
“As a first step, we should look at handing over the Saglemi Hosing project completely after the legal issues have been addressed to the armed forces to occupy, and they will take it from there”.
“We can develop it into a real barrack and take a decision as a country on what happens to Burma Camp”.
Mr. Nitiwul emphasized the necessity to improve accommodation for army personnel as it remains a priority for him and “all members of the armed forces” being in the barracks “we can make sure there is discipline and morale within the armed forces”.
“It is very important for us that as far as you are a serving soldier, you should be in the barracks and not a rented apartment or even your house outside the barracks”.
In 2016, the first phase of the Saglemi housing project which has 1,500 housing units was commissioned by former President John Mahama although it has been largely left uninhabited. The project, which was intended to reduce the country’s massive housing deficit is seated on a 300-acre land with one to three-bedroom apartments for low-income earners.
