Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform and Leader of the Opposition Brigadier David Granger yesterday took the ‘One Nation’ message to Guyana Defence Force officers. A release from APNU said that Granger addressed mid-career Air Corps, Coast Guard and Ground Forces military officers attending the Senior Command and Staff Course.

The release said that Granger highlighted five challenges – National Unity, National Security, Economic viability, Educational apartheid and Good Governance – facing Guyana. He said that the military officers should focus on them as they set off on a new phase of their careers.

The release said that Granger told the officers that Guyana was still not yet a unified nation. He added that the nation could not progress without a greater degree of unity and this was the basis for his repeated call for ‘One Nation.’

On the challenges to national security, while recounting the Surinamese Navy’s foray into Guyana’s waters in 2000, he expressed alarm over the incursion of a Venezuela Navy Frigate into Guyana’s waters in October 2013. He said that the threats to national and public security from porous borders and seaspace and the lack of resources for the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Defence Force and the Coast Guard are major issues.

The release said that the officers posed several searching questions to the Opposition Leader in the interactive session at Camp Ayanganna.

Some of the officers who were present (APNU photo)