The two Guantanamo Bay ex-detainees! I have read somewhere on the Ghanaian internet news portals where an assertive Ghanaian has claimed amid insinuations that President Mahama did bring the Bill Gates to Ghana similarly as the late President Mills and former President Kufuor brought American Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush to Ghana respectively.
I can get the funny side of his story. However, in order not to allow some sorry to say, ignorant persons, especially those within the NDC to go about proclaiming that President Mahama did actually bring Mr and Mrs Bill Gates to Ghana hence a credit to him, I need to set the record straight.
To better understand the situation, let us ask ourselves this question, "When is a President said to have brought someone, thus, an outsider, into the country?" Is it simply when that important personality comes into the country during the reign of that President, although on the person's own accord, or when the President enters into negotiations with that person followed by an honoured formal or informal invitation?
From the Bill Gates' own blog on 25 March 2013, he writes, "I arrive in Ghana today to see firsthand why the country's immunization system is working so well and meet the people involved..."
What is a blog, some people may want to know? A BLOG by definition is "a regular record of your thoughts, opinions, or experiences that you put on the internet for other people to read"
When one reads the blog, one will see that he had come to Ghana on his own, but not by President Mahama's invitation, to see how well his Charity work started in Ghana a few years ago was doing. His Charity work was meant to immunise all children in Ghana against polio free of charge.
From the above, I can conclude without mincing words that it was not President Mahama who brought the Bill Gates, the World's No. 1 richest family to Ghana.
When was the Presidential candidate Mahama who had barely genuinely or dubiously won election 2012 sworn in as the President of Ghana? Was it not on 7 January 2013 or there about? Was he settled by 25 March 2013 to have had the peace of mind to invite the Bill Gates to Ghana - in the wake of the Supreme Court petition ominously looming like a cumulonimbus (large dark cloud) over his head and fate?
It takes a lot of time, energy, trust and negotiations for one to be able to invite important persons or otherwise, into a country. How long did it take President Mahama to get America dump the rightly or wrongly classified terrorists, no, the ex-Guantanamo Bay ex-detainees on Ghana? Did it not take him over a year of secret negotiations and great expense to get them into Ghana?
I hope my point is well established at this point.
Rockson Adofo
(Written on Monday, 18 January 2016)