The incoming National Security adviser Brigadier General Emmanuel Okyere is a top soldier and fit for the job, the outgoing Member of Parliament (MP) for Ablekuma South, Fritz Baffour has said.
President-elect Nana Akufo-Addo at a press conference on Wednesday named the Brigadier General as his national security advisor.
Speaking Thursday on Morning Starr from Ghana’s parliament House ahead of President John Mahama’s final State of the Nation Address, Mr. Baffour, who is also the chairman of Interior and Defense Committee of Parliament said “the national security advisor who’s to come in Brigadier Okyere is a first class soldier…top notch soldier.”
Short Profile of Akufo-Addo’s security appointment
Brigadier General Okyere is a military engineer and holds an Executive Master’s Degree in Governance and Leadership from GIMPA. He’s also a graduate of the Ghana Military Academy, has a solid military background, having done almost 40 years of distinguished service with the colours.
He served in various capacities in both the military and local government. He served as the Metropolitan Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly from 1995 to 1996; and from 2006 to 2010, he was the General Officer Commanding the Southern Command.
The president elect, also named the former Director of the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI), Josuah Kyeremeh as his National Security coordinator, and former Interior Minister under the erstwhile Kufuor administration Albert Kan Dapaah as the minister designate for the National Security.
“By appointing a substantive security minister, it is good for the rule of law because parliament can hold the security and intelligence services accountable,” Dr. Emmanuel Kwesi Aning said of Kan Dapaah’s nomination as minister- designate for national security on Onua FM.
He added: “Furthermore, this fulfils the requirements under Act 526 of 1996.”
According to him, the planned security structure is a “good move by the President, especially taking into consideration the fact that Dr. Sam Amoo under former President John Agyekum Kufuor, both late President John Atta Mills and out-going President John Dramani Mahama, never appointed a substantive Security Minister”.
