Dr Kwame Addo Kufuor, Minister of Defence, on Tuesday stressed that democratic governance should be backed by fundamental changes at the institutional level, including the military, to meet the expectation of the people.

In a speech read for him at the opening of a four-day workshop in Accra, on South-South Dialogue on Defence Transformation, the Minister said the transformation must re-define the role of the defence forces in the struggle to achieve national goals and objectives.

Dr Addo Kufuor said the bitter experience of the involvement of the military in politics over the years had engendered the craving, both in the military and civil administrations, for a rethinking of their proper role in national life as "we struggle to define, nurture and sustain our young democracy.

"That transformation should also equip our defence forces with the professional competence required to make it capable of contributing Ghana's quota to the maintenance of international peace and security," Dr Addo Kufuor said.

The Deputy Minister of Defence, Joseph Akudibilah read the speech at the conference, which the Ghana Ministry of Defence, the Defence Advisory Team of the United Kingdom and the African Security Dialogue and Research organised.

Dr Addo Kufuor explained that the idea for transformation was to bring defence establishment up to date and to improve its performance within the limited resources by bringing vision, hopes and aspirations to bear on the process of modernisation.

He appealed to the participants to share ideas, which could help influence and inform decisions on the process of transforming defence establishments into national assets, capable and ready to play theirs vital role as the primary defender of the sovereignty and integrity of nations.

The conference is to enable the participants to discuss, share experiences and exchange views with colleagues from the continent on how to bring about changes in the concept, structure and mission of defence establishments.

Joe Blell-oon, Deputy Minister of Defence of Sierra Leone, said the Military had been pampered in previous single party and military regimes and as a result it had become difficult for both Parliament and civil society to subject it to control.

He said his country had, therefore, embarked on a defence transformation process to instil a set of values in personnel of the military that would make them loyal and accountable as well as ensure the integration of former personnel into the fold of the country's new Armed Forces.