Kofi Ampeah Woode
A three-man Ugandan People’s Defence Forces delegation, led by the Director, Training and Doctrine (TRADOC) – Brigadier (Brig) Alfred Twinamatsiko, has toured the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), to benchmark their training institutions.
Brig A Twinamatsiko led Colonel (Col) Santurino Tumuranzye – Chief Instructor, and Professor Paul Omach – Subject Specialist, to the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC), on Thursday 18 April 2024, to call on the Commandant, GAFCSC – Major General (Maj Gen) Matthew Kweku Essien, who after receiving them, duly handed them over to the Dean of Academic Affairs – Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, for thorough briefing.
Assisted by the Assistant Commandant, Senior Division, GAFCSC – Air Commodore (A/Cdre) Nii Fio Okai; Vice Dean – Dr Koranten, and the Registrar, the Dean engaged the Ugandan delegation for over two hours, providing detailed solutions to enquiries, on areas such as how Ghana’s military college successfully runs military and academic programs, and gender.
They also enquired and were briefed about how to get accreditation for courses with their national accreditation authority, and universities that they are affiliated to, enlistment and merit systems, to be compliant, innovative, and to prioritize getting qualified persons to administer courses.
Speaking in an interview with Peace Journal later, Brigadier Twinamatsiko said the visit had been very satisfactory, and that the delegation, which had earlier been granted audience with the Ghana Military Academy (GMA), would later be received by the Department of Training, General Headquarters (GHQ), Burma Camp, Accra, on issues of Enlistment.
He stated that in Uganda’s military, institutions that are being benchmarked fall under training, and thus under TRADOC, hence the team’s mission was to discover how GAF’s training institutions combine academic and military packages, and strike a balance for best practices, internationally.
TRADOC plans and formulates policies for the Ugandan Peoples’ Defence Forces training schools, and the Senior Command and Staff College, in their training packages, to have the best practices needed to include in their training packages. “It has been a learning experience and we believe we have enough to take back home”, he affirmed.
In meeting with the Ghana Military Academy, Brigadier Twinamatsiko said they have obtained insights of the military package in training, whiles their meeting with GAFCSC’s Academic Affairs, had granted them further clarity in running their academic affairs.
He stated that Uganda has an equivalent of GAFCSC in their 18-year-old Senior Command and Staff College at Kimaka, which is affiliated to Makerere University, Kampala, in the Jinja District of Uganda – where the source of the Nile issues for its 6600 kilometres journey to Egypt – although he believes GAFCSC has moved a step higher, and is worth emulating.
He called for a revival of Exchange Programs between the two Armed Forces, since they run similar programs, and recalled that in the late 1980s, a group of Ugandans were in GAFCSC, and others as Cadets at the GMA.
General Essien stressed to Brigadier Twinamatsiko that although Ghana would likely have a fully-fledged National Defence University by close of 2024, it still believes that there is a lot to learn from the Armed Forces of Uganda, and vice versa, if both institutions team up.
By Kofi Ampeah-Woode
