Military deal: Akufo-Addo's speech ‘hard’ - Rawlings

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has expressed concern about the choice of words used by President Akufo-Addo on the military agreement with the US, noting that the words were “hard”.

In his attempt to settle the controversies surrounding Ghana’s defence agreement with the United States of America, which was ratified by Parliament on March 23, President Akufo-Addo used words such as cynical, reckless, self-seekers and unspeakable hypocrisy to sort of shut up critics.

A cross section of Ghanaians, largely opposition National Democratic Congress, have condemned the strong words used by the president.

Some felt his choice of words took the shine out of rather precarious situation that deserve serious attention and concise response to allay the fears of rumoured military base embedded in the agreement.

The strong words were not lost on former President Rawlings who wants cool heads to prevail in the agreement.

“Though the President’s address was hard, it was important and timely to hear him and the American Ambassador (earlier) affirm that there would be no military base established in Ghana,” Mr. Rawlings commented in a twitter post.

The former military leader of Ghana added, “That was my major concern in my initial reaction to news of the agreement. The spirit of cooperation, be it military or diplomatic has always been there."



“...If there are details of the agreement that warrant a second look, such details should be examined to create comfort for all sides. ”

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— Jerry John Rawlings (@officeofJJR) April 6, 2018

Meanwhile the Inter-party Coalition for National Sovereignty, a group of opposition parties, has vowed to oppose the Ghana-US military cooperation agreement despite the president’s assurance that the deal does not seek to establish a military base in Ghana or does it amount to selling the country’s sovereignty.