corps of dedicated volunteers known as theMobilisation Squads (MOBISQUADS). They assisted farmers, particularly cocoa farmers, in rehabilitating farms destroyed by the 1983 bushfires. I led the MOBISQUADS to work on farms as we sought to alleviate the severe food shortages caused by the bushfires and compounded by the sudden influx of our compatriots returning fromNigeria. The success of these evacuation andmobilisation exercises propelledme into the political limelight, and in 1986, I was appointed PNDC Secretary for Agriculture. In that role, I formulated the Ten-YearMedium-Term Agricultural Development Programme (MTADP) and secured funding from several international development partners, including theWorld Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the Sasakawa Global 2000 Foundation of Japan. This support helped strengthen theMinistry of Agriculture’s Extension and Crop Services Departments and contributed to increased agricultural production. Ghana eventually reached the point where we were exporting maize to Angola and other countries in the region. I had left behind the bridge of a naval ship, but I had not left behind the lessons the Navy had taught me. Leadership, discipline, organisation and service to country continued to guide me, only now on a very different shore. Courtesy call by senior members of the Retired Commissioned Officers Association on President J. E. A. Mills, 2009. Interaction with President John Evans AttaMills, 2012. The Birthday Journal 29
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