A prominent Ghanaian entrepreneur, Mr B.A Mensah on Friday defended President John Agyekum Kufuor's trip to Togo in January, saying it was in fulfilment of a pre-election promise made to the Togolese government in return for the closure of the frontiers.
Mr Mensah said he personally used his contacts to get through to Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema and impressed upon him to refuse a request from the former government that Togo should open its borders during the election period.
He told a conference on ''Ghana's Foreign Policy Options'' organised jointly by the Foreign Ministry and the Legon Centre for International Affairs LECIA). Mr Mensah said a delegation led by Mr Kofi Totobi Quakyi, then Minister for National Security, was in Lome just before the second round of the elections to arrange for the opening of the borders.
"...I told President Eyadema not to accede to that request. I told him, 'please do not open the border. Close it'. Truly on election day, the border was closed." He said he contacted President Eyadema's wife, who arranged for him (Mr Mensah) to see the President.
Mr Mensah said that President Eyadema made it clear to him that he was going to close the border on condition that Togo would be the first country Mr Kufuor would visit should New Patriotic Party (NPP) win the elections.
Mr Mensah, who was on President Kufuor's delegation to Lome on January 13, gave details of how transport arrangements were made saying he personally booked the Ghana Airways flight following the reluctance of the new government to use the presidential jet.
"In fact I wept when we finally landed at Lome airport and President Eyadema came on board the aircraft to meet us," he said.
Mr Mensah, whose topic was 'the Private Sector and the Articulation of Ghana's Foreign Policy", said former President Jerry John Rawlings presided over the destruction of the private sector out of jealousy and greed.
"The Rawlings regime decimated the fledgling private sector out of jealousy and greed only to replace it a decade later with a political party-biased private sector composed of those, who had organised the coup and were running the country."
He said the image portrayed to the outside world under former President Rawlings was that of corruption and ineptitude of a regime that was prepared to accept backhands and did not practise what it preached.
Mr Mensah said the former government's alignment with Libya, Nicaragua and Cuba led to further isolation of Ghana by the western world and greater economic retardation.
He acknowledged, however, that some attempts were made by the last regime to promote the private sector and foreign investment but said these attempts achieved limited success because the indigenous business people were hardly involved in the formulation of the requisite laws.
"In my view, former President Rawlings' open hatred towards successful local business people among other factors clearly sent negative signals to would-be foreign and local investors," Mr Mensah added, maintaining that he is not a politician, but businessman.
Mr Mensah's words drew a sharp reaction from Mr Kofi Attor, NDC MP for Ho Central and Minority Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, who accused Mr Mensah for misusing the forum to undertake "Rawlings bashing."
He maintained that Mr Mensah's presentation was an attack on the personality of the former President, which he thought was unfair. "I'm wondering what we'll be achieving at the end of the day if we begin to politicise this forum - organised to collate opinions for a suitable foreign policy-into a political platform to pour out vendetta in attempts to settle personal scores."
Mr Attor said while he admitted that there were wrongdoings in the past, he thought that the nation should move forward taking cue from such wrongs in the past.
