Commanding officers of the National Cadet Corps in the Ashanti Region have implored the Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) to remove the National Cadet Coordinator from office and sanitise the school-based cadet force.
The regional command raised scores of concerns that bordered on favouritism, corruption, abuse of office, sex scandals in camps, lack of regulatory framework, unprofessional teachers handling students and wanton discrimination by the coordinator.
They threatened to sever ties with the National Cadet Corps established in 1954 if authorities failed to address their concerns against Nicholas Nii Tettey Amartefio, who is said to have stayed in office for more than 15 years.
The 16-point strongly worded petition was signed by six officers and copied to the Minister of Education, Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Inspector-General of Police and Bureau of National Investigations.
A copy of the five-petition document with five appendices available to the Ghana News Agencywas also copied to all battalion commanders, the Ashanti Regional Minister, the police commander, the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools and Ashanti Regional Cadet Patron.
The petitioners are made up of coordinators, officers in charge of research, training and operations, logistics and general duties, administration and finance and training and programmes.
They accused Mr Amartefio of supervising inconsistent command control and structure and discriminating against teachers in command affairs, regional and national leadership training camps, including local and international exchange and expeditions.
They also claimed teachers are deliberately left out of cadet activities, a situation they said exposed students, particularly females, to vulnerable conditions, indiscipline and risk as they are handled by unprofessional individuals.
. The petitioners expressed worry over many instances of sex scandals which hit the cadet corps during camping when teachers failed to accompany students.
“We are of the view that since cadetting in Ghana is school-based just like culture, physical education and school representative council, teaching staff are supposed to play a core role in the day-to-day administration of cadet corps…under the auspices and direction of the Regional Directorate,” the petitioners said.
“The Ashanti Regional Cadet Corps will no more be under the National Cadet Command but under GES, by extension the Ashanti Regional Directorate.”
“We are strongly against the changes in appointment the National Cadet Coordinator, Nicholas Nii Tettey Amartefio, is trying to make in Ashanti Region,” the supplicants added.
In a rebuttal, Mr Amartefio said the allegations were false.
He said the cadet corps operates with transparency and accountability and that changes made in the organisation sought to restructure the force.
“Look, I don’t appoint as an individual. I do it with the higher command; we do assessment of the candidate,” he said.
He also said government had cut funding to the cadet force and so the body survives on donations, projects and programmes from benevolence.
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