It is no secret that Ghana, having been the first African country south of the Sahara to have won independence from the colonial masters, has also been positioned as a country that gave many African leaders training in their formative years.
There is the story of how Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, for instance, was educated at Ghana’s premier university, the University of Ghana, and then there is this latest one about former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo.
The former Nigeria Army general trained at the Regular Officer Special Training School (ROSTS), now known as the Ghana Military Academy Training School at Teshie, in Accra.
According to details shared by one Dr. E. A. Tetteh on Twitter and sourced from a 2010 Daily Guide Newspaper, “President Obasanjo had his Regular Military Officer’s Training at the then Regular Officer Special Training School (ROSTS) now the Ghana Military Academy Training School, Teshie, Accra.”
According to the report, the former Nigerian president, who has very close affiliations with Ghana (a major highway in Ghana is even named after him), had such colleagues as General Yakubu Gowon, also a former president of Nigeria.
“Some of his colleagues at ROSTS were Gen. Yakubu Gowon (former Nigerian president), Lt. Gen. E. A. Erskine (former Chief of Army Staff, Ghana Army), and Lt. Gen. Joshua Hamidu (former Chief of Defence Staff, Ghana),” he wrote.
It is worth noting that until its name change, the Ghana Military Academy Training School served as a training ground for a lot of West African cadets.
After their 6 months training at the ROSTS, the cadets are transferred to the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, Berkshire, Britain, for the completion of the course and their subsequent commissioning.
Olusegun Obasanjo led Nigeria as Head of State on two different occasions: February 13, 1976 to October 1, 1979, and, May 29, 1999, to May 29, 2007, first as a military ruler and the second as a civilian ruler.
You can also watch this episode of People & Places on GhanaWeb TV here:
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Olusegun Obasanjo trained in Ghana as a soldier