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US military agreement: Akufo-Addo spoke like a dictator – Fuseini

US military agreement: Akufo-Addo spoke like a dictator – Fuseini

A former Minister in the Mahama regime has said President Akufo-Addo spoke like a dictator when he got the opportunity to address the nation last Thursday.

Inusah Fuseini said it was unfortunate the president described people who have criticised the Ghana-US military cooperation agreement as “reckless self-seekers.”

He told Samson Lardy Anyenini on Joy FM/MultiTV’s news analysis show Newsfile Saturday that, he like other Ghanaians criticised the agreement in exercising their fundamental human right.

According to the Tamale Central legislator, Ghana is not practising a dictatorship for the President Akufo-Addo to exhibit an unwillingness to countenance opposing views.

“I was surprised because I have never known my President to be intolerant of opposing views,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo has condemned what he says is the that has attended the consideration and ratification of the 2018 Ghana-US military cooperation agreement.

In a televised broadcast to break his long silence on the matter, the president said some front-line politicians are wallowing in the “largesse of the US and at the same time promoting anti-American sentiment to a populist constituency.”

Such persons he said are “running with the hares and hunting with the hounds” in a matter that has left the country divided.

But the Tamale Central MP said those were strong words by the President and he was hugely disappointed when he heard them.

"The only reason why we are engaged in this discussion is to ascertain with a degree of certainty whether the Ghana-US military cooperation agreement is in our interest.

"The opportunity the president elected to take was to use the tools of rational persuasion to convince all of us and to assure us that at all material times that he and his government engage the US government, in negotiations the provision of the agreement, the supreme national interest will be at stake," he said.

Mr Fuseini said considering what the president did last Thursday, he failed to reassure the people, adding the president failed in clarifying for Ghanaians the nature and form of the agreement to set the matter to rest.

"The President and his government were only called upon by Ghanaians to reveal the nature and form of the agreement that has been entered into with the US, but I think the president was very condescending, very patronizing of Ghanaians…he employed fallacies of certain reasoning.

He also described the speech as “very idiosyncratic and tendentious…what thinking informed the president that all those who were raising issues were necessary of the opposition party?

"I know people who are sympathetic to the NPP who have issues with this agreement…the president was given a national platform to address Ghanaians but he got carried away by his political considerations and thought he was on a political campaign platform," he said. 

Abdul Kwaku Baako Jr

However, the Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Kwaku Baako Jr thinks the President’s description of some of the dissenters of the military pact is appropriate.

“I see nothing unpresidential about this statement”, Kwaku Baako said of the President’s claim that some people are scheming to incite anti-American sentiments.

“The ‘fraternity of front-line politicians’ that is where the focus is," the veteran journalist pointed out.

Original Story on: MyJoyOnline
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