Alerting the nation on Gitmo transfer was Mahama’s responsibility

Ambassador Robert Jackson’s announcement to a select section of the Ghanaian media that the United States’ Embassy in Accra and Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs consulted with Nana Akufo-Addo, the country’s main opposition leader, about President John Mahama’s decision to guest-house the two Saudi-born Yemeni terrorists does not make matters any better or less grave (See “Akufo-Addo was Consulted before Gitmo 2 Transfer – US” Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 4/15/16). The simple fact of the matter is that the onus of letting Akufo-Addo in on the decision to fly in Messrs. Al-Dhuby and Bin-Atef squarely resided with the Chief Resident of the Flagstaff House, and not President Barack Obama’s diplomatic point men and women at the American Embassy in Accra.

We don’t know the exact details of what Ambassador Jackson told the members of the Ghanaian media whom he reportedly met recently to deliberate on the matter, but we know that the decision to make the country’s foremost opposition leader, as well as other prominent Ghanaian civil society leaders, aware of the imminent presence of the two Gitmo terrorists came about 72 hours, or perhaps even less, prior to the touching down of Messrs. Al-Dhuby and Bin-Atef on the tarmac of the country’s main port of entry, the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).

Such a short notice was not very respectful of our leaders. But here again, the blame must be fairly and squarely placed on the doorstep of President Mahama. I mean, how could the third most powerful politician in the country, Speaker Edward Doe Adjaho, not have been privy to this most sensitive of compacts? Equally disturbing, of course, is the fact that the Chairman of the Parliamentary Intelligence Committee, Mr. Fritz Baffuor, who is also a bona fide key operative of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), claims to have been totally blindsided in the negotiations process. What does such gross leadership irresponsibility tell both the American leaders and the rest of the global community at large about the caliber of Ghanaian leadership?

Needless to say, the right thing for President Mahama to have done ought to have been for the Chief Resident of the Flagstaff House to have promptly alerted all three major national leaders to the micro-details of the negotiations with the Americans right from the get-go, by soliciting the advice and opinions of the aforementioned leaders. Instead, President Mahama decided to recklessly use his discretionary powers as Ghana’s executive president to go solo on this most sensitive and far-reaching issue, thereby endangering the lives of some 30 million Ghanaians.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) leaders are correct in accusing the President of having flagrantly violated the country’s anti-terrorism act, as clearly enshrined in the 1992 Republican Constitution, by accepting the two former Guantanamo Bay terror suspects into the country without consulting with the relevant parliamentary and opposition politicians, as well as many of the country’s most significant civil society leaders. In other words, it was the business of President Mahama to have conferred with the general spectrum of the country’s leadership, and not the responsibility of the American Ambassador to Ghana. “Consultation” means that these leaders ought to have been made a part of the negotiations process from the get-go, not after the fact. And so at best, we can say that prominent Ghanaian citizens like Nana Akufo-Addo were “informed” of the Gitmo deal after the fact, not “consulted.”

Ambassador Jackson could then have done a follow-up with these prominent local leaders at a constructively paced moment in time, if only to significantly and healthily assuage public anxiety. Having the Americans step up to the plate, as it were, to undertake the constitutionally stipulated duties of President Mahama and his National Democratic Congress regime reflected poorly on the competence of both Mr. Mahama and his government. This ought to be soberly envisaged as a lesson learned.

We also take this prime opportunity to commend Ambassador Jackson for his yeomanly role in the timely implementation of the US-sponsored operation EPIC GUARDIAN exercise aimed at equipping our national security network to be able to readily respond to, as well as promptly repel, any acts of terrorism unleashed upon the country from both within and without. We also hope and pray that the 8-day joint-exercise, which is scheduled to take place at the end of April, would become a regular collaborative fare between the United States and Ghana for the foreseeable future.

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