By William
Yaw Owusu
Wednesday
April 04, 2018
It has emerged that then President John Mahama virtually
begged the government of the United States of America to allow that country’s powerful
military to conduct ‘counter-terrorism crisis response exercise’ in Ghana.
Leaked diplomatic notes have confirmed that the
request was put in as far back as October 2013, but now that the US Marines are
ready for the exercise with the Ghana Armed Forces, the same Mahama and his
National Democratic Congress (NDC), who are currently out of government, are opposing
the agreement.
The request had been made long before 2015 when the NDC
government re-affirmed the Ghana/US Joint Military Cooperation Agreement, and this
time the agreement has enhanced terms, including the establishment of a strong
US military presence in Ghana.
Bizarrely, the NDC functionaries have switched into their
usual propaganda mode and currently making frantic efforts to incite the public
against the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government and the
Americans over the NPP’s version of the Military Cooperation Agreement that was
ratified by parliament on March 23, 2018.
Counter
Terrorism
Mr Mahama’s request for ‘counter-terrorism planning
training assistance’ had been put before then US Ambassador to Ghana, Gene
Allan Cretz.
According to the leaked documents, the two countries
then started to follow up on the request by Mr Mahama and it developed into a ‘Crisis
Management Exercise’ hosted by Ghana’s National Security Coordinator in August
2015, which identified the need for a ‘live crisis response exercise.’
The US-Africa Command, as a result, proposed “a
counter-terrorism crisis response exercise in Ghana” and it was scheduled to
take place from April 26 to May 6, 2016, although it is unclear if that was
ever conducted.
NDC
Demo
Last Wednesday, a demonstration sponsored primarily
by the opposition NDC against the military cooperation agreement was held amid a
spurious claim that the NPP government was mortgaging Ghana’s future for $20
million to the Americans.
Although the organizers - Ghana First Patriotic
Front - claimed it was a coalition of opposition political parties that staged
the protest, majority of the participants belonged to the NDC.
Anti-American
Rhetoric
Shockingly, Mr Mahama, who as the president wanted a
strong US Military presence in Ghana, turned around and supported the
demonstrators’ anti-American rhetoric.
Although not present at the protest march, the
former president posted on Facebook: “I join in declaring #GhanaFirst as my
compatriots and other democratic forces converge to demonstrate their
opposition to the Ghana/US military agreement.”
$20
million
According to the Ministry of Defence, Ghana has not
received any $20 million as claimed by the NDC and its surrogates, but rather
the amount is an estimated value of equipment the Americans might be bringing
in.
The 2018 cooperation agreement generated heated
public debate because President Akufo-Addo’s NPP government decided to be
transparent with the people of Ghana by sending the deal to parliament for ratification.
The whole US-Ghana military partnership was
introduced during the NDC administration in 1998 under President Jerry John
Rawlings and enhanced in 2015 during the tenure of President John Dramani
Mahama; but the two agreements were never tabled before parliament for approval
as mandated by law.
Defence
Ministry’s Snub
In the April 28, 2015 NDC 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.
Striking
Difference
The striking difference in the NPP’s agreement and
the two previous ones 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 had 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.
Parliamentary
Process
In parliament, two committees namely, Defence and
Interior, as well as Constitutional and Legal Affairs, were asked to scrutinize
the NPP 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,
yet the NDC group came out to cry foul after the vote.
Strangely, before the debate leading to the
ratification of the agreement was held, almost every NDC national executive,
together with its 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 interpretations
by the NDC since the agreement hit parliament.
NDC General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia claimed
there is the possibility of terrorist attacks if Ghana accepted the Americans.
He also said that the NDC will abrogate the deal if
it returns to power.
He had also said specifically that when there were
political disturbances in Togo, that government brought in French troops who he
claimed are still in that country and as a result of their presence, the
opposition parties are not able to remove President Faure Gnassingbé and his
government from office.
Mr Asiedu Nketia said the French troops were in Togo
because of the military pact that country has with France and implied that if
Ghana signs a similar thing with the US, it might make it difficult for any
adventurists to remove the government here.
No
Military Base
Although both governments have come out to deny vehemently
that the establishment of a military base formed part of the agreement, the NDC
is still activating its propaganda machinery, insisting there is going to be a
base.
Cynical
Quote
A critic of the NDC said yesterday that the hypocrisy
being exhibited by the opposition party following the agreement was ‘sickening’
and said it showed clearly that the party does not have the country at heart.
“These are the same people who brought in two
hardcore terrorists released from the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay near
Cuba, resettled them and granted them refugee status; but when US Marines are
coming to partner with our army they see them as security threat,” he fumed.
No comments:
Post a Comment