'I am sad for Akufo-Addo; he didn't read defence deal' - Kpessa-Whyte

Dr Michael Kpessa-Whyte, a research fellow at the University of Ghana, has criticised President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s stance on the Ghana-U.S. defence deal, saying he believes the president did not read the details of the very pact on which he addressed the nation on Thursday, 5 April.

Clearing the air on the deal which has been mired in a lot of controversies, Nana Akufo-Addo insisted the U.S. was not setting up a military base in Ghana.

The president urged Ghanaians to “reject the unspeakable hypocrisy of the naysayers who led our country into bankruptcy in the worst economic record of modern Ghanaian history”, adding: “Let us rise above them.”

He also described his political opponents who have been criticising the deal as “reckless, self-seeking” people.

“It is difficult to understand that such people, knowing what they do know, will go about so blatantly to confuse people and go as far as calling for the overthrow of our democracy. A democracy that has become the beacon of good governance in Africa, a democracy that has survived for a quarter of a century and encompassed even the most irresponsible episodes of governance in a state of unity and stability, a democracy that has provided the framework for systematic development in our social and economic welfare, and assured us of the longest uninterrupted period of stable constitutional governance in our history? Surely this is the kind of cynical manipulations by reckless self-seekers which at the fullness of time, the people of Ghana will acknowledge and condemn and I’m sure that as the facts become clear and widely available and as the people come to terms with the evidence, they will reject the falsehood and deliberate attempts to destabilise our peaceful country. Truth is sacrosanct.

“So, let me state with the clearest affirmation that Ghana has not offered a military base and will not offer a military base to the USA. Indeed the USA has not made any request for such consideration and consisted with our established foreign policy, we will not consider any such request,” the President said.

Reacting to the president’s comments, Dr Kpessah-Whyte told Moro Awudu on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM on Friday, 6 April 2018 that he felt sad for the first gentleman of the land after his address.

“It became very obvious for me after he finished his address that the president did not actually read the agreement. I don’t think he read it at all because the passion with which he wants to deny or want Ghanaians to believe what is being said or discussed in the media is not what his government is granting the U.S., is at variance with what is in the document, and, so, I really became very sad for him because I thought this is a man caught up between, perhaps, his advisors who are not being truthful to him, and his own convictions, and I’ll wish that now that he has done what he did yesterday, he should go back as a lawyer, sit down quietly and read that agreement step by step, clause by clause, provision by provision and see whether he’ll not come to the conclusion that he needs to come and address the nation again.”