More often than not debates about
issues of national economic, political or security significance in Ghana
quickly tend into debate between the NDC and the NPP to point that nothing in
the country gets. Attempts by certain people to turn the Yemeni detainee issue NDC/NPP
or Muslim/Christian affair should be resisted by all. Instead the pros and cons
of the government’s decision to accept the detainees should be analysed.
In my opinion, it shouldn’t be
difficult for Ghana's security agencies to handle the two former Guantanamo
detainees and I do not think President Mahama erred when he reached out to US
to help close down the prison facility in Cuba.
There were roughly 780 detainees
in Guantanamo of which 678 had so far been transferred to about 56 countries
worldwide. Of the 678 transferred, Ghana has accepted just 2 detainees. Other
African countries that have accepted some of the detainees include Algeria 17;
Morocco 13; Sudan 12; Somalia, 3. Libya, Tunisia, and Mauritania have also
accepted 2 detainees each. Egypt, Uganda, and Cape Verde have also accepted 1
each.
Outside Africa, Afghanistan has
accepted 203; Saudi Arabia 125; Pakistan 63; Yemen 22; Oman 20; Britain 15;
Kuwait 12; Tajikistan 11; Albania 11; Kazakhstan 9; France 9; Slovakia 8;
Russia 7; Iraq 7; Georgia 6; Uruguay 6; UAE 6; Qatar 6; and Palau 6. Bahrain,
Spain and Jordan have accepted 5 detainees each. Bermuda, Bosnia and Turkey
have also accepted 4 detainees each. Germany, Somalia, Belgium, and Switzerland
3 each. Eleven countries including the United States, Libya, Tunisia,
Mauritania and Ghana have accepted 2 detainees each. Thirteen countries
including Egypt, Uganda, and Cape Verde have also accepted 1 each. At least 10
detainees have been transferred to countries that can't be determined.
The problem is that the
government wasn't transparent with the people of Ghana about the reasons for
accepting the detainees.
Key cabinet ministers including Foreign
Affairs’ Hannah Tetteh and Interior Ministry’s Mark Woyongo say they were kept
in the dark about the decision to bring the detainees to Ghana. “I don’t know
the details for their being here. I wasn’t privy to the discussions but may be
that can be found from National Security. They are supposed to comport
themselves, not to do anything untoward and I am sure they will be briefed on
what to do and what not to do,” says Mr. Woyongo. According to Hannah Tetteh:
"At the time the discussions were ongoing – especially because at that
point in time it no longer was a foreign affairs discussion, it was a national
security discussion – there were some of those discussions I was not privy to.”
Mr. Fritz Baffour, Chairman of
Parliament Select Committee on Defence and Interior and NDC Member of
Parliament for Ablekuma South says he and his committee members only got to
know about the decision to bring the detainees to Ghana on US news network Fox
News. “We heard about the Guantanamo bay too from an outside source; the Fox
news, who revealed it before our government told us about it. I think the
roadmap that was used to reveal what had happened to us was a little flawed…If
there is a situation like that I think that we should have been informed or
there should have been a way in which that decision could have been passed on
to the people of Ghana and I thought that we didn’t handle it well,” he said.
The statements by Ms Tetteh, Mr.
Woyongo and Mr. Baffour mean that the decision to accept the detainees was made
entirely by the President. As the leader of the people of Ghana and the chief
representative of all Ghanaians home and abroad, the president is mandated by
the constitution to act in the interest of Ghana and Ghanaians. From international
relations perspective the President’s decision was an attempt to boost bilateral
relation between the US and Ghana.
Ghana was the first country in
Sub-Sahara Africa to have been visited by President Obama when he first became
president of the United States in 2009. Back then in 2009, Ghanaians enjoyed
the fact that Obama selected the country for his first Sub-Sahara visit. Since
President Obama has faced fierce resistance at home (mainly from Republicans
about the closure of the prison facility in Cuba), it is right that countries
like Ghana that love democracy, human rights and freedoms help Obama to close
down the facility.
Lord Adusei
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