The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has expressed disappointment in president Akufo-Addo’s reaction to the controversial Ghana-US military cooperation agreement.
Johnson Asiedu Nketia said the president failed to address the controversial issues surrounding the agreement and rather decided to engage in name calling.
“I was expecting something better,” he said adding, the president should have focused on the issues better than he did, Thursday evening.
The president broke his silence on the controversial Ghana-US military cooperation agreement that has left the country divided.
In a recorded broadcast, the president descended heavily on front-line politicians he said had been hypocritical in the discussion of the military agreement.
According to him, some of these frontline politicians are benefitting from the “largesse of the US and at the same time promoting anti-American sentiment to a populist constituency.”
Such persons he said are “running with the hares and hunting with the hounds.”
He did not understand how some of those leaders who signed similar military agreements with the US will turn around and create the impression as though the 2018 agreement is new.
He said even though his predecessors decided to sign the document in secret with the US, he decided to bring it to Parliament for ratification despite the hazards of a potential politicization of the issues as is happening, sharing anecdotal evidence of a friend who wondered why he did not simply follow the path laid by those before him.
“You cannot claim to believe in democracy unless you have faith in the people; faith in their inherent goodness; faith in their capacity to make the right decision given the right information.
“It is this faith in the people that has shaped my entire political career and it is this faith that propels me to lead an open and transparent government,” he said.
He defended the government’s decision to ratify the 2018 agreement and dismissed assertions the agreement was to mortgage the sovereignty of the country.
He also objected to claims by the minority that the agreement automatically leads to the setting up of a US Military base in Ghana.
“Let me state with the clearest affirmation, Ghana has not offered a military base and will not offer a military base to the US. Indeed the US has not made any request for such consideration and consistent with our established foreign policy we will not consider any such request,” he stated.
But the NDC is not satisfied.
Asiedu Nketia told Joy News’ Emefa Apawu, the president only came to repeat the same old narrative by his appointees and did not bring anything new to the discussion.
He said the president cannot by word of mouth deny Ghana’s sovereignty has been sold when in fact “the evidence in the agreement does support what he wanted us to believe.”
Joynews
