Ghana-US military pact: Akufo-Addo failed to show respect to Ghanaians - Sammy Gyamfi

Outspoken communications team member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, has stated that President Akufo-Addo failed to show respect to Ghanaians in his national address over concerns raised toward the US-Ghana military pact.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo addressed the nation on Thursday, April 5, 2016 concerning the deal which has sparked massive debate since its announcement.

The President in his speech subtly threw a few punches at people who made a huge ‘fuss’ about the deal.

Members of the opposition previously organized a protest against the deal, an exercise that increased the weight of criticisms the government was receiving over the agreement.

The President, among other things, said, “How could anyone who has been in government and run the administration of this nation feign ignorance of the conditions under which Ghanaian troops undertake peace-keeping operations or the conditions under which our country has collaborated with major international institutions? It is difficult to understand that such people, knowing what they do know, would set about so blatantly to confuse people, and go as far as calling for the overthrow of our democracy? Surely, this is the kind of cynical manipulation by reckless self-seekers, which, in the fullness of time, the people of Ghana will acknowledge and condemn.”

But in a statement signed by Sammy Gyamfi and copied to GhanaWeb indicated that President Akufo-Addo failed to show respect to well-meaning Ghanaians who have found some issues with the agreement hence the President described them as naysayers and cynics.

He added that President Akufo-Addo has left the entire country more confused and polarized over his comment.

"Our President in his belicose rant failed to show respect to well-meaning and discerning Ghanaians, including academics and intelligentsia, who have found issue with specific suicidal clauses in this terrible agreement. Instead, our President lumped all the Ghanaian people together, and described us in familiar fashion as cynics, saboteurs and naysayers. Clearly, our President has left the entire nation more confused and polarized by this matter than ever!", he explained.

'It is now crystal clear that Ghanaians cannot hold their Commander-in-chief in trust. Here was a man who bore all the traits of a medieval African tyrant, who will not contenance any dissenting views. Even when we disagree with his government's decisions, we cannot freely express our opinions without incurring the wrath and intolerance typical of a despot", he emphasized.



The NDC's National Communication Officer hopeful, revealed that President Akufo-Addo even failed to greet Ghanaians when addressing the nation on the agreement because he was under anger and so eager to poor out venom on his critics.

Below is the full statement

OUR PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS TO THE NATION ON THE STINKING GHANA-US DEFENCE COOPERATION AGREEMENT, DID NOT DO ANY GOOD TO THE SINKING REPUTATION OF HIS GOVERNMENT

1. Our President came across as an angry man, so eager to poor out venom on his critics that he failed to even offer a greeting to the good people of Ghana. This pertulance and belligerence was reinforced by his reference to his critics as unpatriotic, hypocrites and self-seeking politicians throughout his rant.

2. The President sought to equate previous (1998 and 2015) Ghana-US military agreements with the current (2018) agreement in a very mischievous manner. What he however failed to tell the Ghanaian people is the many fundamental and material differences between the previous agreements and the current 2018 agreement which is in issue. Mr. President in his 15-minute tirade failed to tell the Ghanaian people that the 2018 agreement is an enhanced agreement as described by the memorandum which accompanied the draft agreement which was submitted to Parliament for "rectification". Hence, his desperate attempt to equate the previous agreements with the current one is what is hypocritical and self-seeking, and not the views of his discerning critics.



3. The President further displayed dizzying heights of hypocrisy when he shamefully pontificated his so-called transparency and Democratic credentials over his predecessors by submitting this agreement to Parliament for ratification. In fact, he ought to know that he had no options in the light of the recent SC decision in the GITMO 2 case. His predecessors didn't do so because at the time, there was no such decision from our APEX court on such security arrangements.

4. Our President made a false premise when he sort to compare our nation's relationship with International Organizations like the IMF, the World Bank etc., with the current Ghana-America Defense Cooperation Agreement. Our President as a so-called astute Diplomat and a former Foreign Minister for that matter should have known better than anyone, that the rules of engagement governing Ghana's relationship with global governance and economic bodies like the UN or IMF can not be compared to a military cooperation Agreement with a powerful Army like the US Army, with all it's record of excessess and abuses in other jurisdictions.

5. Our President went further to posit rather shockingly that when Ghanaians troops go on UN peacekeeping operations, they do not carry passports but their military ID cards because of global military alliances. This is yet the most pathetic and flawed comparison to have been made by our President in his bid to justify this stinking deal by comparing military operations under war conditions, where there is always a global call for action under the aegis of global governance bodies like UN, AU or ECOWAS, with a mutual military cooperation Agreement between two sovereign nations in peacetime, for their mutual and strategic interests. This position of our President is most illogical, pitiful and shocking.

6. Our President pathetically reiterated and re-echoed the lugubrious position of his party communicators that the Ghana-US Defense Cooperation Agreement was 'mischievously' leaked by some 'unscrupulous' people to score Political capital. What Shylock thinking from our President and his apologists! Is Mr. President not aware of a recent Supreme Court Ruling that requires all International treaties and Agreements such as the one in question to be executed and subsequently ratified by our Parliament?

And as such, since the representatives of the people- parliament for that matter, does not operate in secrecy in matters such as this Defence cooperation agreement, the entire nation was always bound to become aware of the details of this agreement, even if it was not prematurely leaked by so-called saboteurs of Mr. President?

7. Our President in his belicose rant failed to show respect to well-meaning and discerning Ghanaians, including academics and intelligentsia, who have found issue with specific suicidal clauses in this terrible agreement. Instead, our President lumped all the Ghanaian people together, and described us in familiar fashion as cynics, saboteurs and naysayers. Clearly, our President has left the entire nation more confused and polarized by this matter than ever!

It is now crystal clear that Ghanaians cannot hold their Commander-in-chief in trust. Here was a man who bore all the traits of a medieval African tyrant, who will not contenance any dissenting views. Even when we disagree with his government's decisions, we cannot freely express our opinions without incurring the wrath and intolerance typical of a despot.

After listening to the President speak, I am more convinced than ever that he is indeed a one term President.

God save Ghana!

SAMMY GYAMFI

Source: Daniel Kaku