Kofi Ampeah Woode
Ghana Navy (GN) has held the 2024 edition of its two-day Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Annual Conference, to review the progress of its Agenda 2024, to identify achievements and challenges, in order to strategize to achieve set objectives by December 2024.
The traditional CNS Annual Conference had its 2024 version commence by the CNS of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) – Rear Admiral (R/Adm) Issah Adam Yakubu, at the Owusu-Ansah Hall of the Navy Headquarters (NHQ), Burma Camp, Accra, on Thursday 22 February 2024.
The conference assembled the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC), Western Naval Command (WNC) – Commodore (Cdre) Emmanuel Ayesu Kwafo; FOC, Eastern Naval Command – Cdre Maxwell Arhen; FOC, Naval Training Command – Cdre Atiayao; Flag Officer Fleet – Cdre Samuel Ayelazono; Chief Staff Officer, NHQ – Cdre Prosper Modey, FOC, Naval Logistics Command; FOC, Riverine Command; and Deputy Chief Staff Officers.
Presenting his State of the GN address, R/Adm IA Yakubu outlined a review on each of the five (5) Strategic Objectives of Agenda 2024, which he set after assuming office in 2021 as the Navy Commander, and sought to examine where the Navy stood, and where it should be by December 2024.
When Admiral Yakubu assumed office in 2021, he envisioned the GN to maintain a modern robust Naval Force capable of defending Ghana against seaborne threats, and ensuring the safety and security of the maritime domain, while maintaining the time-tested traditions of the GN.
R/Adm Yakubu became Navy Commander at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic with the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) negatively impacted with insecurity and neglect, leading to increase in illicit activities, with piracy as the most visible, as attacks on ships had reached an alarming proportion with several seafarers taken hostage.
At the time, the Ghana Tuna Association met with the President of Ghana, and threatened to cease operations in Ghana unless something drastic was done to stem the attacks on Ghanaian registered Tuna vessels, at a time when 16 crew members of the association had been kidnapped from their vessels.
Globally, 135 crew members were kidnapped in the GoG accounting for 95 percent of the global number, as Ghana recorded 6 attacks with the kidnapping of 16 crew members in two incidents, however, there were only 3 attacks in 2021 representing a significant drop in the number of attacks, with a new trend of three continuous years of zero kidnapping at sea in Ghanaian waters.
In the address, the CNS reminded his charges that there still is the threat of serious challenges in Ghana’s maritime domain, particularly in the areas of Irregular Unreported Unregulated (IUU) fishing, petty thefts at anchorages, fuel smuggling and the possible use by terrorists of the maritime domain to further their operations.
Ghana Navy remains the only security agency which maintains forces at sea to enforce maritime laws, deter aggression and maintain law and order in the maritime domain of Ghana, and is charged with defending the seaward approaches to the country, maintain the sovereignty of the territorial sea, and to enforce the laws of the country at sea.
Also present at the opening ceremony included Directors, Service Advisors, Officers, Master Coxswain of the Navy, other Fleet Coxswains, Sailors, and Defence Civilian Staff.
By Kofi Ampeah-Woode
