PRESS RELEASE
25TH JANUARY 2016
FROM NPP NATIONAL WOMEN ORGANISER
SUBJECT: President John Dramani Mahama Is Dangerous
President John Mahama’s decision to exert his executive authority as per Article 58 on the issue of accepting terrorists into Ghana appears to have been exercised because he felt he had the power to do so and without respect for the “Principle that all powers of Government spring from the Sovereign Will of the People” and to their representatives in Parliament. This makes the President very dangerous. As our President has forced these people on us without passing it through Parliament then it implies that he believes he can do and get away with anything. But the question is how can the President act with such impunity? What happened to the provision of checks and balances from the arms of government? This President has the majority in Parliament so why avoid them especially when President Obama sought permission from their Congress? If he who is the President and the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Ghana and the number one person vested by our constitution with the responsibility of our security and protection cannot respect and protect our rights and freedom then, who will? Why should our President accept to help the USA President Obama to fulfil his campaign promise by accepting two known inmates of Guantanamo Bay and terrorists into our beloved country, why did he hide the decision to bring them onto our land even from the Minister of Interior Mark Woyongo, why was even the Minister for Foreign Affairs Hannah Tetteh excluded and why hide their arrival onto our shores? It is important that we the people of Ghana ask President John Dramani Mahama about his Oath of Allegiance and Presidential Oath “…to be faithful and true to the Republic of Ghana,…preserve, protect and defend the Constitution… and dedicate… to the service and well-being of the people…”. This is a serious invasion of our rights, our homes, our lives, our security by our chief protector and this violation and the risks it exposes us to cannot be sugar-coated with our compassion, nor sacrificed for maintaining international relations with the mighty USA. This cloak and dagger sneaking these men into our lives is very dangerous and more fit for authoritarian rule or a dictatorship instead of a democracy. We need to wonder what other arrangements, deals or agreements President Mahama has accepted without our knowledge, especially when we are not at war or in a state of emergency.
How can the President alone be right and the everybody else like the Christian Council and Catholic Bishops Conference, and the people’s court be wrong? Although the case is in court, the President has lost the moral argument and the people’s sense of justice. President Mahama has acted with impunity and disrespect of our freedom and confidence in him by failing to inform us through Parliament about these terrorists Mohammed Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammed Salih Al-Dhuby. If the American media had not raised the alert would the President have told us that we were living with these terrorists? For two years these negotiations had been going on and we were ignorant. The terrorists actually arrived in Ghana and we did not know. They could be anybody’s neighbour? And that is scary. Our Parliament, the body that represents the people of Ghana did not know. The Council of State did not know, Former President’s Kufour and Jerry Rawlings did not know, the Minister for Interior did not know and the Minister for Foreign Affairs did not know much. The clergy, civil society and political parties did not know until after their arrival in Ghana was announced in January this year. What else don’t we know? What is the role of the Chief of National Security Alhaji Baba Kamara in this? What is Mr Henry Smith Ghana’s Ambassador to the USA role in this? What is President Mahama hiding and what is he getting out of this? Where is the agreement that was signed? Why did the Deputy Minister for Interior say on Newsfile that there is no agreement? Are we to believe that all this trauma and violation of our dignity and rights as a people was sealed only verbally with a handshake? Are there in Ghana really only two or there are more of these inmates? Why are the President’s men insisting that no agreement, no deal nor any treaty was signed? Is all this in our nation’s best interest or President Mahama and Obama’s interest? This authoritarian style of leadership is alien to our constitution and our freedom. The President’s statement that the terrorist are low risk is being very economical with the truth, it is misleading and does not comfort us in the least. This is extremely frightening and cannot be in the best interest of Ghana, especially because it exposes us to threats from America’s enemies, infiltration by other terrorists like Boko Haram, bombings in Ghana like the recent bombings in Burkina Faso and indoctrinating our children in the ways of terrorism. What it means is that we can wake up one day and be told that President Mahama has sold Akokosombo Dam or Ghana because he has executive authority, or perhaps because he is so compassionate and for humanitarian grounds some other country needs Akosombo more than we do. It could also mean that we can wake up one day to bombing in Ghana. With the various findings of ammunitions in for example in Kumasi, the Presidents talk of compassion is bogus because one cannot be more catholic than the Pope nor weep more than the bereaved. What is not good for the goose can certainly not be good for the gander? Is Ghana more compassionate than America and most importantly why is our President not compassionate about Ghanaians? Exposing us to this threat of terrorism is extremely incompassionate, wicked and dangerous on the part of President Mahama. I therefore call upon President Mahama to apologise to the good people of Ghana for subverting the sovereign will of the people, endangering our lives and to act now to get these terrorist out of Ghana. Why did Obama go to Congress with this issue although he too has executive authority? Why did Congress and the American people reject them? And why should Ghana clean up America’s mess? Were we part of the decision to set up Guatanamo Bay so why should we be at the receiving end? If it is so bad it has to be shut down then why are we establishing another Guatanamo Bay in Ghana? Why has Yemen accepted 15 inmates and not these two? How do we know that they will not sit in our mosques, make friends with our people and indoctrinate people in acts of terrorism? What happens when they befriend Ghanaian women and marry them, can they not become citizens of Ghana? What happens if they ran away from the security service details to cause mayhem within Ghana or like Osama Bin Laden’s chef absconded from Sudan to Afghanistan? President Mahama has misfired with this deal. Indeed he has goofed to say the least. This is like in December 2012 when President Mahama was heard clearly on radio to go and vote without verification in spite of the Legislative Instrument that we agreed to that stated that “no verification, no vote”, forcing us to accept an Ebola Center in the Volta Region, especially when there was no Ebola in Ghana, or like some developed countries dumping their nuclear waste in Africa. The time has come to fight for the dignity, honour and security of Ghana by sending these inmates out of Ghana.
The President should not take advantage of the high illiterate population in Ghana nor the fact that he believes that as Ghanaians have a short memory this too will blow over, nor that because he has a ‘dead goat syndrome’ he will not listen to the public outrage and outcry of our fears of the risk of these bomb throwers. The woman selling fufu in her chop bar in Bole might not be aware but she would be interested in being forced to co-exist with terrorist and she would be horrified and frightened for the safety of her children and family. The poor farmer in Atebubu battling with poor rains and increases in fuel prices, the belaboured teacher over burdened with more taxes, increases in electricity and water tariffs amidst the depressing ‘dumsor’ would not should not be further burdened with sleepless nights because our President, our Commander in Chief has compromised our freedom and sold us short for these terrorists, and for what?. How many pieces of silver has the sovereign will of Ghanaians been betrayed for? What are we compensating the USA for this treachery and act of impunity? Come 6th March 2016, our beloved country Ghana will be 59 years old and we do not need this risk of bomb throwers hanging over our heads as we celebrate the anniversary of the declaration of our independence and our integrity of who we are as a republic. We must stand together with pride, with patriotism, commitment, loyalty and allegiance to mother Ghana. We must also not loose sight of the fact that this year is general election and any shadow of threat from this deal is too risky.
President Mahama has sold Ghanaians short. Are we to take it that President Mahama was made an offer he could not refuse? So what is this offer that was so juicy that our President could disrespect our Parliament, his Ministers for Interior and Foreign Affairs and the Sovereign will of the people? Could it be USA financial support for President Mahama’s campaign for re-election or some such other favour from the USA? Whatever we owe the USA and the importance of maintaining diplomatic ties with them is not worth the risk we are being exposed to. Article 40 (a) of our Constitution states, “In dealings with other nations, the Government shall promote and protect the interest of Ghana…”. As the first sub Saharan Country to attain independence we must not invite neo-colonialism into our body politic. As citizens it is our duty as per Article 41 (a) to promote the prestige and good name of Ghana and respect the symbols of the nation, (b) to uphold and defend this Constitution and the law….” We must maintain the high standards our ancestors fought and died for that we of this generation and generations to come will live in Freedom. President Barrack Obama must not bully us, must not interfere with our governance, he must not take advantage of the weaknesses in our institutions of governance that he spoke against when he paid Ghana a visit, nor must he play God with our lives so that he can fulfil his campaign promise or support President Mahama’s bid for re-election. For our democracy to grow and be strengthened it is unworthy of the first ever black African American President of the USA to make us accept what the USA have rejected. President Obama owes us an apology and the immediate removal of the terrorists from our shores. His desire to fulfil his campaign promise should not jeopardise our existence, our security and stability. And President Mahma should never have put Ghanaians in this risky and dangerous position.
For the future there is the need for the constitutional review and amendment on the interpretation and clear definition of the executive authority of a President so that nobody abuses or takes for granted the sovereign will of the people of Ghana.
GOD BLESS OUR HOMELAND GHANA
LET US BE BOLD TO DEFEND FOREVER, THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM AND OF RIGHT