Security Analyst, Dr. Vladimir Antwi-Danso, has stated that there is nothing wrong with the proposed age gap for recruitment into the country’s security services, except for the rising unemployment rate among the youth.
His comments follow a suggestion by the Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George that the age limit for military recruitment should be reviewed to allow more opportunities for qualified individuals.
Speaking on Campus Exclusive show on Radio Univers, on Thursday, 9th October 2025, Dr. Antwi-Danso noted that the modern military is no longer a “military of brawn but a military of brain.”
He explained that recruitment today focuses more on intelligence, knowledge, and strategic thinking rather than solely on physical strength.
“Apart from the unemployment levels that we have, there is nothing wrong with the age limit. It is just mostly universal — young people at the age of 18 years can join the army as recruits, and for enlistment, 25 years. This is something which is known almost everywhere.So I don’t know what prompts this kind of decision and I’m saying if it were coming from the military itself, then they know the type of defence management they want to have.”
“The 21st century military is not military of brawn, it’s a military of brain. Military today is not a question of how big and strong you are, how tall you are — no.People to be recruited in the military today are people with brains, people with the readiness to be dexterous,” he explained.
Dr. Antwi-Danso added that Samuel Nartey George, could have sought clarification from the military — particularly the Training and Doctrine Unit — to better understand the institution’s recruitment standards before making such a proposal.
“The military has a culture, they have a tradition, they have a logic of doing whatever they do. So if he wants the age limit to be increased, all he’s got to do is to see the military hierarchy — the Ghana Armed Forces, especially the Training and Doctrine Unit — to see what goes into training.”
He further stated that discipline should not be confined to the military alone. He urged government to create more avenues for the youth to participate in patriotic and civic programmes under initiatives such as the National Service Scheme (NSS) to instill discipline and national responsibility.
“The military is not the only place where discipline is instilled in the youth. The youth after their secondary school can be put in the military for some specific purposes — peacetime purposes. During war, you recruit all of them; you just mobilize all of them into peace campaigns.”
“As soon as you finish university, you go for two years of activity with discipline, or you enter the army — and that army is a kind of Greek brigade, or there can be several other ways the youth are made to serve the nation in one way or the other,” he noted.
He also stressed that the military remains a neutral institution and that partisan political behavior should never be entertained within its ranks.
“In the military, we don’t have ‘I’m NPP’ or ‘I’m NDC,’ because such partisan acts often create division. As military personnel, we are supposed to be united.We cannot promote peace when we, the peacemakers, are not in good terms with each other. To prevent all of this, we remain neutral,” he emphasized.
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Story by Irene Naapog Dontah| univers.ug.edu.gh
Edited by Erica Odeenyin Odoom
