US military base: Enough of your ‘unspeakable hypocrisy’ – Akufo-Addo jabs Mahama, NDC

President Nana Akufo-Addo has launched a scathing attack on former president John Mahama and other functionaries of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), accusing them of feeding the public with false information about Ghana's Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) with the US.

In a fiery speech to the nation from the Jubilee House in Accra, Akufo-Addo, without mentioning Mahama's name, accused the former president and his opposition colleagues of what he called "unspeakable hypocrisy".

Breaking his silence on the US-Ghana agreement, which has provoked public condemnation and outrage, Akufo-Addo accused opposition politicians of criticising the very agreement they had signed when they were in power.

He said similar agreements were signed in 1998, 2000 and under Mahama's leadership in 2015.

Condemning what he called the "cynical manipulation" of Mahama and his party members, Akufo-Addo portrayed himself as a transparent leader who had chosen to put the agreement before the Ghanaians, unlike his predecessor, who he said signed the deal secretly.

According to him, the public outrage over the deal has been informed by what he called a blatant attempt by the opposition to mislead Ghanaians.

He accused the opposition figures of hypocritically enjoying American largesse while simultaneously promoting anti-American sentiments to a populist audience.

Mahama had earlier lent his support to a demonstration against the US-Ghana military deal agreement, which was promoted heavily by members of the opposition NDC.

Akufo-Addo denied reports that the US-Ghana agreement will see the Americans build a military base in Ghana, saying: "Ghana has not offered and will not offer a military base to the United States of America."

He said even that even the Americans had not requested for a base, adding that Ghana had signed defence cooperation agreements with the US for many decades.

The president angrily rejected assertions by some Ghanaians that, by signing the deal, he had sold Ghana's sovereignty to the US for a mere $20 million.

Pointing to his record as a political and human rights activists for several decades, Akufo-Addo said he was aware of the sacrifices made by the country's heroes to obtain independence and would never take steps to undermine the country's sovereignty.

Akufo-Addo stressed that the US agreement was in the best interest of the country, in a time of increased global insecurity.

He expressed optimism that as more people get to learn the "facts" of the deal, they will reject what he called the opposition's falsehood and their deliberate attempt to destabilise the country.