The opposition NDC has described as lies claims by the Defense Minister Dominic Nitiwul that the controversial military pact between Ghana and United States originates from a 2015 agreement entered into with the latter by the erstwhile Mahama administration.
It has served notice that should the government remain adamant and get the agreement ratified by parliament, the next government of the NDC will set it aside.
“Ghana does not need a US military base on our soil to demonstrate our commitment to fight against terrorism. We wish to state here and now that if President Akufo-Addo and his NPP administration proceeds to ratify the agreement despite all protests and public sentiments, the NDC administration which will assume the reins of government in 2020 will suspend the agreement,” said the General Secretary of the NDC, Asiedu Nketia.
This comes barely 24 hours after the Minority spokesperson on Foreign Affairs Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa admitted on Morning Starr that some contentious elements of the current deal were part of what was negotiated in 2015 under the Mahama led administration.
Speaking at a press conference Wednesday the Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul stated that government cannot back out of the controversial military agreement despite massive public outcry and protests from the minority and Ghanaians.
“We have already signed a 1998 agreement, we have signed the 2015 agreement and we have already caught ourselves in this net and we cannot back out because this is just a combination of the two agreements,” he said.
In a reaction, however, Mr. Nketia said the Minister is deceiving Ghanaians just to push the bill through.
“It is a total lie to push through a dangerous agreement that will enslave all of us but we are not [ready]. If they are prepared to be enslaved let them signe the agreement relating to their government so they can be enslaved,” he told the news conference.
The Government of Ghana, according to a leaked document, has approved the agreement with the US to set up a military base in Ghana and also allow unrestricted access to a host of facilities and wide-ranging tax exemptions to the United States Military—a claim the government of Ghana and the US denied.
Calling on parliament to reject the agreement, Mr. Nketia warned that its ratification will spell doom for the country.
Under the agreement, he said there could be surveillance of “our private communication and the government of Ghana will be powerless to check it.”
“This is betrayal of the fundamental freedoms of Ghanaians,” he thundered.
Ghana, he said is a leading member of the African Union and ECOWAS and should never abdicate “our responsibility to prevent the use of our territory for conduct activities that may constitute breaches of the sovereignty of our African region with whom we truly have shared interest.”
He said the indiscriminate “haste” with which the government is going about the proposed agreement is “very worrying” wondering if it is because of the promise of aid that has been promised president Nana Akufo-Addo.
He served notice that the NDC as a party shall stand up for what is right and in the larger national interest stating that “we shall be active citizens.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
