The President’s delivery this evening is ignoble and ignominious. Ghana is so much disappointed in the president.
Is this how a President can speak to the very people who voted him into this high office. Very disrespectful and a typical display of his cavalier attitude which has been his style from his infancy.
During the elections he manage to hide his cavalier attitude now that he has the power so its on display.
[ads1]H.E the President spoke last night regarding the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement 2018 with the Government of the United States and has created the impression as if all those who criticize the agreement are anti-American’s.
It was indeed a sad day for our motherland because same Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo led his Npp to demonstrate against the Gitmo 2 which was a temporal agreement between Ghana and US in 2016.
Does the Presidents action at that time constitute Recklessness and a self seeking manipulator” as he seeks to portray today?
This speech of President Akufo Addo is an epitome of arrogance in ignorance, naivety and deliberate dishonesty.
Peace missions are under strict United Nations rules and regulations and defaulters are promptly tried and judged.
*THE PRESIDENT’S SPEECH*
We are happy the President admitted that the Ghanaian populace are not happy about the Ghana-US defense deal. According to the President, his best friend approached and informed him to listen to the voice of the good people of Ghana but in his wisdom as the Commander In Chief he will still not listen to the numerous calls from almost every sector except our Religious Leaders to cancel the deal.
We were shocked the President said the deal wasn’t secret and his government decided to lay it before Parliament for scrutiny.
*Our President must understand that taking the 2018 Ghana-US Military Agreement to parliament is not at their free will but an order from the Supreme court as a result of the rulling in the GitMo 2 case.*
But that such an order was not in place before the 2015 agreement.
Thus, the Npp government can’t go into that agreement without going to parliament per the supreme court’s ruling.
The current Enhanced Defense Agreement undermines efforts of respecting Ghana’s Rule of Law when US personnel cannot be subjected to prosecution under the laws of Ghana.
It cedes away our rights as a people when we give away unfettered access to facilities in Ghana that is not time bound but is endless in perpetuity. In the current arrangement, there is no clarity on what items are tax exempt, what can come in as duty free and how they can be re-exported.
*In the current arrangement, US personnel will require only ID cards. This is not reciprocal when Ghanaian Officers travel to the US. This shows Clearly that the President was misinformed.*
We challenge whoever gave him that wrong information to go to 5BN and see it for himself.
Soldiers travels with passports and when going their names as well as passport numbers are firstly sent to UN. On the day of departure, each of every Soldier traveling, names are mentioned loudly at Burma Camp square, after Ghana Immigration Service has successfully checked and stamped all their passports, render it back to the officer in charge of travelling or Ghana Armed Forces Protocol for collection by individual traveller.
Moreover, the President has also worked as a foreign minister and a diplomat before which I believe must also know this basic fact about travelling passport of our men and women in uniform.
As a former diplomat, it was shocking our President compared the military agreement with the most powerful army on earth with economic agreement with organizations IMF, World bank and the UN
Ghanaians will continue to be friends with the United States. They admire us for our democracy and apart from military cooperation, we have collaborated on several fronts.
What is at stake is to revise the current agreement so that it carries with it the dignity and spirit of the Ghanaian as clearly illustrated in the 2015 agreement.
The Applicability of the 2015 agreement, the Waiver of tax or Exluded Costs, the Terms and Conditions and the Entry and Termination of the 2015 arrangement is not only specific and clear, they respect that the national laws of Ghana are integral just as those of the US.
This is not the case with the 2018 agreement which undermines our Rule of Law, denigrates us as a people and disrespects our dignity.
2015 arrangement was clear on how to exit and how to solve problems of interpretation.
Government position on the 2018 deal was as if it was an electoral campaign rather than a very important national priority issue that requires national consensus.
Despite the fact that peace and stability in West Africa is our national priority any agreement that undermines our democratic institutions, sovereignty and practices will also weaken our stability.
*OTHERS REJECTED BETTER DEALS THAN OURS*
The President should be reminded that on 21st March 2018, Seychelles blocked similar deal with India which would’ve amounted to five Hundred and Fifty million dollars ($550million) to help the Indians ensure safety of their vessels in the Southern Indian Ocean as well as give Seychelles military support under mutual benefits unlike that of Ghana which is more of American interest. So why should the Ghanaian president Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo be extremely happy with $20million in return of making the good people of Ghana “naked” before the Americans, and vulnerable to the world at large?
Philippines in 2014 entered into a ten year Defense agreement known as *Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement(EDCA)* as efforts by Washington to secretly counter Chinese aggression in the Region.
Going through their agreement you could see that they had a better deal than what our current substandard government has given us and there was a clear exit plan for both parties unlike ours that gives out the country on a silver plater for $20million.
Because they had a good deal when the soldiers started misbehaving by raping their women they decided to cancel the agreement.
*WORSE EXPERIENCES BY OTHER COUNTRIES WITH SIMILAR DEALS WITH THE US*
There are lots of countries who have regretted going into such a deal with the the United States due to their abuse of women and children.
From 2003-2007 the US military in Colombia sexually assaulted 53 women.
Japan in 2006 recorded 270 sexual assault cases.
Just last week a US soldier admitted that he shot at someone as a way of training.
These are the people our leaders have sold our sovereignty to.
In Conclusion, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah warned us against these people, the Npp and the US concerning agreement of this nature. These were his words on June 21st 1963:
“Proposals of aid need to be examined with care. Most of all, we must beware of any kind of military help, for it can so easily place us in the hands of foreign powers and make them, in effect, arbiters of our fate.
Apart from drawing us into their orbit, they become intimately familiar with details of our defence structure and its strength. They can even become the designers of our defence structure and place us completely at their mercy.
Aid of this kind, even when ostensibly free, can be most dangerous and costly in its consequences.”
Nkrumah indeed never dies!
TEAM LEADER
*NDC PROFORUM AND RESEARCH CENTER.*
ACCRA
