Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
Ambassador Ohene Agyekum, a former Ghana ambassador to the United States, wants to know the level of consultation that took place with interested stakeholders before President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo publicly commented to the United States on insurgent activity in Burkina Faso.
President Nana Akufo-Addo, while in the USA, last week, alleged during the US-Africa Leaders' Summit that Burkina Faso has hired Russian mercenaries or paramilitary group Wagner in Burkina Faso.
The President told the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, that Burkina Faso had offered Wagner a mine as payment.
"Today, Russian mercenaries are on our northern border. Burkina Faso has now entered into an arrangement to go along with Mali in employing the Wagner forces there," the President was quoted to have said
The statement has since prompted the withdrawal of envoys from both countries, beginning with Burkina Faso.
Burkina Faso's Ministry of Foreign Affairs "expressed disapproval" about the statements made by Ghana's president, a situation Ambassador Ohene Agyekum said could have been avoided.
He has, however, questioned President Akufo-Addo if he consulted key stakeholders such as ECOWAS or the AU before making his unguarded statement,
"What the president did is not done in diplomacy; you don't go speaking that way when you have not engaged people. I want to know if he spoke to AU or ECOWAS. Did he get their permission? These are matters of peace for the sub-region and the continent," he said.
"The president failed to look at the big picture; if they start throwing bombs our way, will we survive? I am shocked a former Foreign Affairs Minister will even speak this way, this is absolutely not right of a leader"
"The water has just been muddied with the withdrawals of ambassadors. These are people on your border. The needed tact and diplomacy is always needed. It is not always this way. Do you think the US will come to your aid when the inevitable happens?" he questioned.
