Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States, Victor Smith, has proposed compulsory military training for young people as part of efforts to promote discipline and address what he describes as growing indiscipline in the country.
Speaking in an interview on JoyNews, Mr Smith suggested that young people leaving school should undergo military training for up to two years to instil discipline and keep them productively engaged.
“Why don’t we let the young people who come out of school do two years or so in military training? Just to sort of, if you like, put some discipline in people,” he said.
The Ambassador argued that keeping young people engaged in structured activities could help address idleness, which he associated with corruption and other social problems.
“The devil finds work for idle hands. So we put them in the military training; they’re not idle anymore,” he said.
He suggested that participants could be deployed to agricultural activities, including mass production, as part of the proposed programme.
Mr Smith also proposed reviving the Workers’ Brigade model, under which young people would be engaged in agriculture and paid for their work.
“I want you to think about another step—what used to exist in the Workers’ Brigade, where they will go into agriculture, mass production, they will get paid for the food that we are producing and selling to regional markets or abroad and pay them,” he said.
He argued that the initiative could combine skills training with productive employment, while supporting food production and creating opportunities for young people.
Under his proposal, the military training component would be government-supported, with participants trained and engaged in assigned activities rather than left without structured opportunities.
Mr Smith said participation in the proposed programme should be compulsory and suggested that it could be linked to the National Service Authority.
“It must be compulsory. Let’s say one year,” he said, adding that opportunities created through the Workers’ Brigade could provide a pathway into employment after the training period.
He said a structured programme was necessary to ensure young people had meaningful activities and were not left to determine how to occupy their time without support.
Ghana already operates a mandatory national service programme for eligible tertiary education graduates through the National Service Authority.
Mr Smith’s proposal would go beyond the existing arrangement by introducing compulsory military training and potentially extending structured national service to young people leaving school.