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Opinions of Thursday, 29 November 2012

Columnist: The Catalyst

Akufo-Addo Wants War Between Ghana And Ivory Coast

It is emerging clearly that New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo wants Ghana to go to war with the Ivory Coast at all cost. Perhaps the most palpable evidence in this regard emanated from the warmongering opposition leader’s reckless statement at the recent Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Presidential Debate where he deliberately sought to draw a wedge between Ghana and the Ivory Coast by stating assertively that Ghana is a fertile ground for hostile activities against the Ivorian government.

It would be remembered that when the NPP flagbearer met some Ghanaian soldiers recently as part of his campaign for the job of president of Ghana, he told them that under his presidency, he would ensure that soldiers were not reduced to mere farmers. In other words, his first option would be to send them to war, a reckless decision he failed in pushing the late President John Evans Atta Mills to take during the Ivorian crisis.

Judging from his conduct during the Ivorian crisis, resulting from an electoral dispute between then President Laurent Gbagbo and his contender and now President Alassane Ouatarra, Nana Akufo-Addo had been on the side of war, where he expected Ghanaian soldiers to have engaged in war with the Ivorian Armed Forces of the Gbagbo government.

What is surprising is that after the long period following the end of the crisis, Nana Akufo-Addo continues to live with the unpatriotically dangerous notion that Ghana and Ivory Coast needed to have a faceoff militarily, as though the two countries have a score to settle. This, he revealed at the recent IEA debate, where he totally flopped.
Referring to a so-called United Nations (UN) report, the NPP flagbearer reduced the topic to Ghana’s relation with Ivory Coast and made statements bordering on warmongering when the issue of Foreign Policy came up for discussion at the IEA debate.
Insinuating that the NDC government is aiding hostile activities against the government of Ivory Coast, the NPP flagbearer claimed a UN report indicts Ghana as allowing Ivorian dissidents to hold meetings in Ghana and plotting to destabilise the Ivorian government of President Alassane Ouatarra, saying “we haven’t heard anything since.”
Even when President Mahama pointed out the ‘all-die-be-die’ opposition leader’s obvious ignorance to him by reminding him that national security information and what transpires between himself and his Ivorian counterpart is top secret that he as opposition leader might not be privy too, hence his blunder, the adamant NPP flagbearer refused to eat humble pie.
Meanwhile it has emerged that the supposed UN report Mr Akufo-Addo is hanging on to ditch the government and create diplomatic problems for Ghana with Ivory Coast is turning out to be a fake document after all. This was disclosed by National Security Coordinator Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (retired) on Joy FM’s Newsfile on Saturday.
He has raised doubts over the credibility of the “supposed UN report,” saying government is uncertain about the credibility of the report because the sources quoted in it are unreliable.
According to the National Security Coordinator, who contributed to the discussion on phone the report being referred to are statements attributed to associates of the group engaged by the UN, who compiled the report. He maintained the UN Security Council had not issued any statement on the report and therefore that report could not be described as a UN report.
He revealed that the group had planned to meet Ghanaian authorities on July 24th 2012 for their contribution to their findings unfortunately, that was the same date that President John Atta Mills passed on.
Nana Akufo-Addo has since come under heavy criticism for making the diplomatically dangerous statement that could be a recipe for war between Ghana and Ivory Coast but for the matured and sensible manner President Mahama handled the issue and exposed the desperate NPP flagbearer.