The Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC) will soon begin a PhD programme in Defence and International Politics with the caveat that “when preparations are completed and at the time opportune”.
Rear Admiral Seth Amoama, GAFCSC Commandant, said given the progress of work done in the Masters programme and the infrastructural expansion that was ongoing, the College was confident that introducing the PhD programme in Defence and International Politics would be another success story.
With regards to facility development the Commandant said the College had initiated a programme to enable potential Defence Staff (DS) to acquire PhD to facilitate the future expansion of the College.
Rear Admiral Amoama said this over the weekend during the College’s Joint Graduation ceremony of Course 37 and Master of Science in Defence and International Politics (MDIP) programme.
The event was attended by Vice President Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, Mr Benjamin Bewa-Nyog Kombour, Defence Minister; Major General Obed Boamah Akwa, Chief of the Army Staff; and Professor Franklyn A. Manu, Reactor of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration.
Course 37 was privileged to be the second in the history of GAFCSC to do an integrated course study, comprising the Passed Staff Course (‘psc’) and the MDIP.
In all 64 ‘psc’ students from 12 African countries; namely Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Rwanda and Bostwana graduated; of which 37 were from Ghana.
On the hand, 49 students in the regular MDIP and 30 students weekend MDIP graduated at the ceremony.
The MDIP graduands were mainly from ministries, departments and agencies, diplomats, security services and privates institutions.
The College was established with the mandate to train officers of the Ghana Armed Forces and allied officers of Africa in command and staff responsibility.
Rear Admiral Amoama said as a centre of excellence for professional military training and inter-agency and department training, the College nurtures and encourages all its students to be responsible, effective and efficient in their respective roles in their chosen careers, with teamwork as a cardinal principle.
He said as expected, demand for allocation of vacancies from sister African countries was on the increase due to the quality and impact of their products at both national and international levels.
He said with the successful graduation of the first cohort of civilians in the MDIP programe, GAFCSC had positioned itself to fill the critical gap in national policy space by providing civilians a blend of academic excellence, sound leadership and military discipline to drive the nation’s socio-economic development.
The Commandant said the College had also put together a five-year strategic plan from 2016 that provides a road map for the implementation of its future programmes.
Major P. A. Hoffma, an MDIP graduate received the overall best student award.
At the function, the GAFCSC also honoured General Joshua Hamidu (rtd), the first Commandant of the College by naming an auditorium after him.
Source GNA