On Friday, 21st August 2026, I attended the 50th Anniversary Graduation ceremony of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC) Senior Division Course 47, at Teshie-Accra.
Of the 90 graduating officers, 64 were from Ghana and 26 from 13 Allied African countries.
These were Benin, Botswana, La Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Morocco, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Togo. Also graduating were students of two Masters' degree Courses in Diplomacy and International Politics (MDIP), and Security Studies (MSS).
My immediate instinct was therefore to give readers a break from "galamsey" and RTAs this week, and write on GAFCSC.
However, that night, without consulting me, my roaming mind flew into history on a different trajectory with its own flight-plan. It landed in 1849 when the French philosopher and writer, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr made the profound statement "plus ca change, plus la meme chose," to wit "the more things change, the more they remain the same."
So, use of insulting / disrespectful language in high places, "galamsey" and its resultant poisoning of our food-chain, and our rivers with lead /arsenic / mercury / cyanide, bribery / corruption, etc will simply not leave the headlines, no matter how hard one tries to avoid them.
In my determination to steer away from these rather unsavoury / depressing topics which appear to have entrenched themselves in our society giving credence to Jean-Baptiste's assertion, my mind wandered into sports, my childhood passion.
A striking comment made about the one-year Staff College Course being like a marathon race reminded me of a question a youngster asked years ago on why something of the long duration was / is called a "marathon?" Was GAFCSC Course 47 a marathon race?
In my Daily Graphic article of September 4th 2015, I stated as follows.
Marathon
QUOTE
On 10 March 2015, the legendary Ethiopian Marathon runner Haile Gebrselassiearrived in Accra. The purpose of his visit, incidentally his first to Ghana, was to launch Ghana's first international Marathon race, the Accra Marathon scheduled for September 2015. Since 1987, the local Accra Milo Marathon has been run annually. However, an international marathon race has never been run in Ghana. Gebrselassie's visit reminded me of the just ended Austin Marathon.
The Austin Marathon race in Texas, USA took place on Monday, 16 Feb 2015. Like most Marathon races run in different parts of the world, like the Boston, Berlin, Barcelona and London Marathons, Austin 2015 would have faded into thin air as routine soon after the event.
However, a significant development during the 2015 edition has etched this particular event into the annals of history. So, what is a marathon race, and how did it come by the name Marathon?
Phillipides
History has it that, in the years before Christ was born (BC) over two thousand years ago, Persia (modern day Iran) and Greece were mortal enemies. They had fought a series of wars, with Persia gradually winning territory. In 490 BC, the two armies fought in what Persia believed was going to be the final victory over Greece. However, at the final battle fought at the Greek village of Marathon, the Greek Army decisively and comprehensively defeated the Persian Army.
Phillipides, a Greek soldier and a long-distance runner was tasked to courier the good news to the authorities in Athens. Phillipides is said to have ran non-stop from Marathon to Athens, the capital of Greece. When he burst into the chamber of the equivalent of our Ghana's Parliament at a time the Greek Members of Parliament (MPs) called Magistrates were in session, he shouted: "Joy to you; we have won." With that, he fell down, collapsed and died from exhaustion.
The distance Phillipides ran non-stop from Marathon to Athens was twenty-six miles, three hundred and eighty-five yards (26 miles, 385 yards). The conversion to the metric system is forty-two kilometers, and two hundred metres (42.2 kilometres).
When the modern day Olympic Games came into being in 1896, the first hosts, Greece decided having as an event, a race covering the distance Phillipides ran from Marathon to Athens to announce the victory of Greece over Persia in the Battle of Marathon. This was to immortalize the name of Phillipides and also the village called Marathon. To this day, the Marathon race is the longest and perhaps, the most difficult race in athletics, testing athletes' endurance, physical / mental strength to the limit.
In 2015, a particular incident during the Austin, US Marathon race found its way into the history books. What was it, and what accounted for its significance?
Hyvon Ngetich
For the greater part of the 26 miles-plus race, indeed up to the twenty-three mile point, Kenyan lady Hyvon Ngetich led the female runners.
With three miles to finish however, she started feeling unwell but continued running in spite of her body steadily giving way. She was soon overtaken by her compatriot Kenyan Cynthia Jerop. With only two hundred metres to go, she fell down on the track absolutely exhausted and completely dazed. The race officials quickly went to her aid with a wheel-chair but she refused any form of assistance as that would have led to her disqualification.
Then came the drama! With her eyes fixed on the finish line, she crawled on all fours towards her objective. When she was only two-metres away from the finish line, another athlete went past her to take the second position. Hyvon Ngetich crossed the finish line almost immediately on all fours to take the third position as the spectators gave her a thunderous standing ovation. The race-director John Conley immediately directed that, Hyvon be given the same prize money as that for the lady who came second. This is what Conley said.
"You are the toughest person on the planet........ You ran the bravest race and crawled the greatest crawl I have ever seen in my life. You have earned much honour. I am going to adjust your prize money, so that you get the same prize you would have gotten if you were second."
The history of the Marathon race over the years is replete with examples of extreme human courage, determination and endurance reminiscent of Phillipides' heroic non-stop run from Marathon to Athens in 490 BC.
UNQUOTE
Valedictory Speech
The valedictory speech, a very impressive one, was given by the Honour-Graduate, Maj KK Kumi, the best Army, and first in the order-of-merit of Course 47.
In his narration of how challenging the course was, he emphasized that, it was not only as physically demanding (as a marathon race), but probably mentally more enervating. He was therefore thankful to Almighty God for seeing them through the course successfully. He exhorted his colleagues from all 14 African countries to leverage on the bonds of friendship established for the future development of the continent of Africa.
The best Naval officer and second overall was Lt Cdr PS Okyere. The best Air Force Officer and third in the order-of-merit was Sqn Ldr PEY Hoenyenuga.
We wish the new graduates of GAFCSC Course 47 well!
Finally to Ghana's leaders, given good leadership, like Philippides, Ghanaians will run twenty-six miles, three hundred and eighty-five yards or forty-two kilometers and two hundred metres non-stop, to deliver the message "joy to you; we have won," after which they will happily drop dead. Let Ghanaians disprove Jean-Baptiste Karr's quote that "the more things change, the more they stay the same," because it is only in Opposition that our duopoly see what is wrong with Ghana.
After all, governance is a marathon/continuum of nation-building for posterity.
Leadership, lead by Example/Humility/Integrity. Fellow Ghanaians, WAKE UP!
Brig Gen Dan Frimpong (Rtd)
Former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association
Nairobi, Kenya.
Council Chairman
Family Health University
Accra.
Credit: Peace FM Online