President Akufo-Addo has expressed his outrage at the defamatory comments from his political opponents who claim his government has sold Ghana’s sovereignty to the United States of America.
“I will never be the President that will compromise or sell the sovereignty of our country. I respect deeply the memory of the great patriots whose sacrifice and toil brought about our independence and freedom. I have stood with you, the Ghanaian people, all my adult life, fighting for our individual and collective rights,” he said during a live telecast on TV, Thursday.
This is the President’s first commentary on the controversial military agreement between Ghana and the United States.
The Ghana-US defence cooperation agreement gives American soldiers unimpeded access to certain key installations and in return, the West African country will earn $20 million by way of training of its soldiers and equipment.
The Minority in Parliament continuously questioned the President’s silence on the deal which was passed by a one-sided parliament; the majority, after a cabinet endorsement.
In an open letter to the President, minority spokesperson on foreign affairs Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa described the president’s silence on the issue as “cold and unusual”.
Opening up to Ghanaians during the live telecast, President Akufo-Addo said “everything I have done, since assuming the great honour and privilege of serving you as President of the Republic, demonstrates that I remain focused on building a self-reliant, free, prosperous Ghana, which will be able to make her own unique contribution to the growth and development of Africa and the world.”
According to him, "it is difficult to understand that such people, knowing what they do know, would set about so blatantly to confuse people, and go as far as calling for the overthrow of our democracy? A democracy that has become the beacon of good governance in Africa? A democracy that has survived for a quarter of a century and encompassed even the most irresponsible episodes of ill governance, in a state of unity and stability? A democracy that has provided the framework for systematic developments in our social and economic welfare, and assured us of the longest, uninterrupted period of stable constitutional governance in our history?
Surely, this is the kind of cynical manipulation by reckless self-seekers, which, in the fullness of time, the people of Ghana will acknowledge and condemn. And I am sure that as the facts become clear and widely available, and as the people come to terms with the evidence, they will reject the falsehood and deliberate attempts to destabilize our peaceful country. Truth is sacrosanct.
So let me state with the clearest affirmation that Ghana has not offered a military base, and will not offer a military base to the United States of America. Indeed, the United States of America has not made any request for such consideration and, consistent with our established foreign policy, we will not consider any such request. However, in consideration of the realities of our circumstances and the challenges to peace in our region in our time, we have deemed it prudent to continue the Co-operation Agreement with the United States of America. It is our firm belief that the Agreement will help enhance our defence capability, and offer an important layer of support in our common effort to protect the peace in our region"
He has therefore urged Ghanaians to “concentrate and spend our energies on working together to achieve that goal of a happy and prosperous Ghana, and reject the hypocrisy of the naysayers who led our country into bankruptcy and the worse economic record of modern Ghanaian history. Let us rise above them, and build the Ghana of our destiny, the land of freedom, justice, progress and prosperity...”
Source: Rebecca Addo Tetteh/Peacefmonline.com
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hi ,king has hit the world and the streets of the world with his gospel, reggae and soca music, every one must dance and be happy forever , i love all my ans and u
Why is Sarkozy,Zuma and co. are facing Corruption charges and J. Incompetent Mahama and his Wife Lordina walking freely whiles they were involved in a lot of CORRUPT activities in this country. Dr Opuni must not go down alone Mrs. Lordina Mahama was part of the deals and must be prosecuted by the A-G or the Special Prosecutor office or else we are going to HIT the STREET from WA to ACCRA.
Anytime the American's meet JOHN MAHAMA,KWESI PRATT and co. they will tell them there "BALONEY" because their kind of thinking is CHILDISH.If NDC think making noise of American Base in Ghana will make them win election in GHANA then they should better find another thing because we GHANAIAN's prefer to be part of United States than NDC been in gov't.
i would not have even wasted my time to speak on this if i were the president. In as much as i do not agree with the deal, i do not see why he shd waste his time to talk about this. they are already talking abt it in the media and no matter what he says they will still talk abt it. theyjust set a trap for him and he fell. now u see the same ple asking that he spoke are the same ple here having issues with what he said and how he said it. we are all sick ple in this country. politics has eaten up our brains that we forgot that we are all Ghanaians and have to think like we are one so as to move this nation forward. this country will never develop until we wake up and realize that these politics will not help us. I see that day coming tho.
But is nana who signed this aggrement ?
Akuffo addo is a violent man, and he wants to do everything he wants with force. he will use any means to get what he wants,including violence. majority citizens say this agreement needs little adjustments in order to balance, you refuse to listen to the people that voted you into power. hhhhhmmmnnn power is sweet but cannot last forever.
This is not a presidential speech, it is too childish, as a president, we want clarity on issues concerning US agreement, but instead it made the whole thing much more complex and ambiguous.A president address a nation as a father to unified the nation, Akuffo addo shld learn to be tolerance and face the main issues.
Our president needs anger management course. please kindly enroll him. So this is it. hahahahahahahahah petty president sorry.
Go to the US Embassy in Ghana and see how Ghanaian s struggling to acquire a visa to only visit the USA and they are rejected . We will only allow this agreement with USA to pass when they (USA) allow our Ghanaian Citizens to enter the US with an ID card without a VISA. Thank you.
The President yesterday was so angry to the extent that he was contradicting himself through out and end up scoring own goals.