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An elder statesman and former diplomat in the Kwame Nkrumah administration, Mr K.B. Asante, has waded into the raging public debate on the rationality or otherwise of accommodating two Guantanamo Bay ex-detainees of Yemeni origin in Ghana.

The John Mahama administration’s decision to accept the two, Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby, has provoked widespread condemnation in a section of the public, with many expressing fear that accommodating people with alleged terrorism ties could compromise national security.

Although the government has given an assurance that the two pose no threat to Ghana’s peace and security, with President Mahama saying that road accidents pose a greater threat to Ghanaians than the ex-detainees, many Ghanaians still remain skeptical.

Commenting on the development on Accra-based Starr FM, Mr K.B. Asante said the public outcry that had trailed the government’s decision was due to a lack of understanding of the issues on the part of the public.

Mr Asante said: “I don’t think people understand the issues. It’s a pity that the problem has not been properly explained to Ghanaians and that many people have forgotten what happened some 10 years ago in America and what happened in Guantanamo Bay,”.

According to him, Ghana’s first President, Kwame Nkrumah, would have accepted the two ex-detainees if he had had to make such a call.

“…if we had been faced with a situation like this, he [Nkrumah] would’ve allowed them to come subject to certain questions and understanding with the Americans”.

Mr Asante, who is also a columnist with the Daily Graphic, said having demonstrated such goodwill towards the US, Ghana must ask for something substantial in return, especially in the area of security.

“We should ask for something, assistance, not monetary or any other but real assistance in the matter of security because let’s face fact and if you don’t face facts in this world you go haywire, the Americans we may not like them - I’m not pro-American but they have methods. They have the facilities to follow these people, to tell us what these people are,” he said.