Military personnel play a vital role by securing the territorial integrity of the state as well as defending the people against external aggression.
It is, therefore, the responsibility of the state to provide them with the basic necessities of life, especially shelter.
The situation at the Western Naval Command is sad as far as the ratings are concerned.
To make the mobilisation of the military easy to defend the country, the state provides the personnel with bases where they are accommodated. The bases may also be used as a command centre, training ground, or test ground.
However, many ratings of the Ghana Navy in the twin-city are not accommodated. They have to look for their own private accommodation in town.
This is unfair as in most cases landlords eject them when they obtain better offers in rent advance.
That aside, some cannot afford the high rent advances landlords in the twin-city currently demand from prospective tenants.
Some of the ratings have their accommodation miles away from the Sekondi Naval Base, in areas which could best be described as slums.
These ratings use public toilets just like their civilian counterparts and because of the state of the areas in which they live, most of them do not allow their relatives to visit them.
The end of the plight of the enthusiastic young men and women who have chosen to defend the country at the expense of their lives appears to be in sight as the Chief of Naval Station has given them the assurance of better times ahead.
Speaking at the command’s administrative parade at the Western Command, he said measures had been put in place for the young sailors to draw “Family Allowance” in their attempt to alleviate their plight.
He said the construction of more accommodation was also underway to ensure that future recruitment drives of the Navy proceeded unhindered.
He said early next year, the Navy would retrain recruits, whose recruitment process started last year but was stalled as a result of acute accommodation problems.
“It is long overdue for the Ghana Navy to boast a base where it could have all personnel and their families provided with shelter to guarantee them peace of mind to enable them to perform their defensive roles more effectively and efficiently.
It is a fact of life that when one faces problems such as the lack of life’s basic needs one loses concentration.
The Ghana Navy was formed in 1958 and was temporarily accommodated in a facility belonging to the then Ghana Railways and Ports Authority in Takoradi, which now houses the present Ghana Naval Stores Depot.
Ships and the technical department of the navy also use the same facilities at the Takoradi Harbour.
The dream of having a stronger and better Navy comparable to any was made stronger when the government of Ghana in 1960 decided to provide a first class permanent Naval base for the Ghana Navy in Sekondi.
After the government had signed an agreement with Messrs Pomgrad of Yugoslavia for the construction of the base at the Sekondi Port in 1962 preparations were progressing steadily under the watchful eyes of the then President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
However, the dream of the Navy to have a place to call their own, or their base was thwarted by the 1966 coup d’etat.
Since then, successive governments did little to acknowledge the importance of the sister unit of the Ghana Army.
Now that oil has been discovered in the Western Region, the country has seen the importance of the Navy. Thank God, the government of the day is making efforts to add to the fleet of the old ladies GNS Yogaga, Sibo, Anzoni and Achimota.
The security that the country needs at the moment before the commencement of drilling in 2010 is now more urgent than ever.
The NLC government reviewed the original project and made some modifications. Interesting among those changes were the substitutions of the slipway for the dry-dock. Work on the Sekondi project was completed in early 1967.
That was the end of everything, the issue of accommodation for personnel, especially the ratings was not seriously addressed and catered for and as a result the naval ratings have to be scattered everywhere within the Sekondi/Takoradi metropolis.
Looking at the importance of the Navy today, there is the need to ensure that accommodation is provided for the personnel to ensure that they are all housed in a military base for easy mobilisation.
The area of responsibility of the command stretches from Winneba in the Central Region to the Western Border at New Town in the Jomoro District of the Western Region, a distance of about 200 nautical miles seaward.
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