Contibution By Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings To A Statement In Honour Of The First Brigadier-General Constance Emefa Edjeani-Afenu.
Mr. Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the statement made by the Hon Vice Chairman of the Committee on Defence and Interior in honour of the first female Brigadier-General, Constance Emefa Edjeani-Afenu, who passed on at the 37 Military Hospital three days ago.
Mr. Speaker, we must have the full details of her burial so that it is not lost on people the fact that she actually earned her strides. The Brigadier-General did all the relevant courses which empowered her to take part in what the United Nations call the Gender Responsive Peacekeeping Operations. I was actually in a course with her on Women, Peace and Security, and she was a woman who was confident and calm but very strong about her position and principles as well.
Mr. Speaker, to add to what the Hon Vice Chairman read is the fact that she served as a Platoon Commander for the 2nd Infantry Battalion in 1980 after her training. She was also the Adjutant to the 3rd Border Guards Battalion from 1981 to 1982 and she subsequently was appointed the General Staff Officer Grade 3 (Training and Personnel Officer) at the Border Guards Headquarters from 1983 to 1984, and then as Adjutant to the Border Guards Training School in Kpetoe in 1984
Mr. Speaker, in 1995, she was appointed the 2nd in Command at the Ghana Armed Forces Pay Regiment and in 1999 as the Commanding Officer becoming the first female officer to occupy these positions. Mr. Speaker, she was an old girl and certainly lived by the motto of the Wesley Girls’ High School, which is to “Live Pure, Speak True, Right Wrong and Follow the King”.
Mr. Speaker, the Brigadier-General is indeed a beacon of hope and a good example, not just to the young women within the security services, but also to those who are living within the civilian space and wanting to aspire to greatness. She was truly an example of someone who did not just fill the quota of being a female, but she truly earned her strides and climbed up the ladder in Ghana Armed Forces.
Mr. Speaker, her role as Deputy Commander in the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MUNOSCO) was also a weighty proof that Ghana was indeed fulfilling its role of ensuring that we played the role of a gender responsive United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, which fed from the original UN Security Council Resolution 132(5), and acknowledged the disproportionate impact of conflict on women in this world.
Mr. Speaker, she played her role and she should not be seen as the only female to have ascended to this position. She broke the glass-ceiling and it is time for other women to occupy such positions so that she would no longer be the exception but the role.
Mr. Speaker, thank you for the opportunity and may she rest in peace.
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