By William
Yaw Owusu
Monday March
26, 2018
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC)
has been exposed over the Defence Cooperation Agreement between the governments
of the United States and Ghana, which was finally ratified by Parliament last
Friday amid tension in the house.
Two earlier defence agreements between the US and
Ghana in 1998 and 2015 respectively have impugned the NDC’s integrity in the
raging polemic over the subject.
The whole US-Ghana Military partnership was
introduced during the same NDC administration in 1998 and enhanced in 2015.
But in opposition, they (NDC) have been going
against deals they signed with the same country on the same subject-matter.
In all the two agreements the NDC signed with the
Clinton and Obama administrations respectively, the Rawlings and Mahama administrations
did not even send the agreements to Parliament for consideration.
However, it has become a heated public debate
because the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government decided to be
transparent with the people of Ghana by sending the deal to parliament for
approval.
In the April 28, 2015 agreement, it was then Foreign
Minister, Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, who signed on behalf of the people of Ghana in
faraway Stuttgart, Germany, but a careful perusal of the document does not look
like the Ministry of Defense, under whose mandate the whole operation is
supposed to run was even involved.
Expert’s
View
According to Prof Yaw Gyampo of the Political
Science Department of the University of Ghana, “In all the three agreements
(1998, 2015 and 2018), there are, to my mind, certain worrying provisions that
allows US army to come to Ghana, occupy and control some places that they alone
can access and control, bring in heavy military accoutrement that our own
security agencies can’t inspect, grant the US tax free incentives to import
their ammunitions to the country, permit the US to operate their equipment and
drive them on our roads without license, and create a situation that places the
US army in Ghana virtually above our laws.”
He said that “in the first two agreements, there
were no independent means of knowing what the US were doing in Ghana. The
current agreement doesn't depart from this challenge. So, regulating US
activities under the agreement is difficult.”
He, however, commended Defense Minister, Dominic
Nitiwul “for tabling the agreement before parliament,”
He urged him not to be dismissive of suggestions and
overly defensive of the agreement.
NDC
Denials
It was not surprising that James Agalga, NDC MP for
Builsa North in the Upper East Region, who is also Minority Spokesperson on
Defence and Interior reportedly said that they did not know such an agreement was
signed in 2015.
The agreement, according to Mr. Nitiwul, will enable
the two countries share intelligence, particularly in the fight against
terrorism and transnational organized crimes in order to protect their
respective interests.
According to Mr Nitiwul, the United States was
seeking an understanding of the status of their troops who come to the country
to train Ghanaian soldiers and vice versa and through that the move was
actualized.
Committee
Level
Two committees namely- Defence and Interior, as well
as Constitutional and Legal Affairs, were asked to scrutinize the agreement
before passing it to a vote on the floor of the house,
At the end of the joint committee sitting, DAILY
GUIDE gathered that 13 opposition NDC MPs okayed the agreement while
the ruling NPP had 10 MPs endorsing the deal.
Strangely, before the debate leading to the ratification
of the agreement was held, almost every NDC national executive together with
NDC political allies and some known activists fronting for other parties, had
stormed the floor of Parliament to encourage their MPs to disrupt the whole
process.
They were all clad in red armbands and tried to make
things difficult for the Speaker of Parliament.
Weird
Interpretations
There have been all sorts of weird interpretation by
the NDC since the agreement hit parliament.
NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, claims
there is the possibility of terrorist attacks if Ghana accepts the American
soldiers.
He said the NDC would abrogate the deal if it returns
to power.
Mr Agalga, on the other hand, said the US could
bring in nuclear weapons if the deal goes ahead.
Striking
difference
The striking difference in the NPP’s agreement and
the two previous agreements signed by the NDC (1998 and 2015) with the
Americans is that in the instant case, the agreement can be nullified at
anytime without even giving reasons if the government thinks it is not in
favour of the people of Ghana.
An expert said “once a letter is written to this
effect, the agreement terminates within one year.”
The scope of the agreement does not also mandate the
US to establish a military base, as claimed by the opposition NDC and its
cheerleaders.
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