Majority Chief Whip and Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, has declared his intention to initiate legal proceedings against the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) should it fail to revise the current maximum age requirement for recruitment.
The lawmaker has maintained that medical fitness, rather than age, should serve as the determining factor for enlistment.
Speaking on Accra-based Citi FM, Mr. Dafeamekpor argued that the existing age restriction should correspond with the National Youth Authority Act, 2016 (Act 939), which classifies “youth” as persons aged between 15 and 35 years.
“I intend to test this matter because, you see, we need to test systems to let systems work. And when systems are supposed to work, they must work within the existing legal framework. We must all obey the law,” he said.
He further stated that the Armed Forces could adopt an age bracket consistent with the law, as long as applicants satisfy the medical criteria for service.
“I won’t have any problem if the armed forces say that the person between the ages of 15 years and 35 years is eligible to apply, but subject to a medical fitness test, because in a lot of countries, persons below 18 years are eligible to be recruited into the army, subject to parental consent,” he noted.
Mr. Dafeamekpor cautioned that if the GAF ignores the call for reform, he would be compelled to pursue legal redress.
“So this matter must be tested; if the army resists this call, it may leave me with no option but to seek a remedy in the judicial forum. Our army is constitutionally established and given effect to it under Article 102 by Parliament, and subsequently with legislation such as the National Youth Authority Act, which is the law that governs the youth bracket of this country, whether the army can continue to conduct its business without recourse to this laid-down legislation,” he explained.
Earlier, in a post on his official X (formerly Twitter) page, Mr. Dafeamekpor revealed that several party supporters had raised concerns about the current age ceiling.
He also cited comparative examples showing that nations such as Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Nigeria, and the United States allow enlistment into the military well into one’s 30s or beyond.
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