Former National Security Advisor Brigadier General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah (rtd) has said Ghana is inviting terror attacks by ratifying the controversial Defence Corporation Agreement between Ghana and the United States of America.
Despite several calls on government from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and some civil society organisations to abort the deal, the Majority side in parliament voted to approve it.
As part of the agreement, the US government will be spending $20 million in training and supplying equipment for the Ghana Armed Forces with Ghana expected to bear the cost for securing US military facilities in the country. According to the contract, US forces will also enjoy unfettered access to certain key installations as well as diplomatic immunity.
Reacting to this development on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM on Monday, 26 March 2018, Mr Nunoo-Mensah said Ghana risks being attacked for having American soldiers set up a base in the country.
He told show host Moro Awudu that: “We’ve opened our country to America to have a base here to fight their wars on terror. The most serious aspect of it as I see is that, we have entered the coalition of those that are fighting to eradicate terrorism in Africa and the rest of the world.
“In 2001 we had this problem of bombing in Washington and President Bush then declared war on terror. That war is now being fought fiercely in the Middle East…Iraq is gone, Libya is all over the place Syria is in trouble and even in our sub region not long ago, Cote d’Ivoire had their share, they were attacked. Burkina Faso had an attack so by entering into this kind of thing, we are inviting terror onto our land. Are we ready for that? Is that what we are allowing our government to do”
He continued that by signing the agreement, “We are now announcing to the world that we’ve joined American coalition against terror…we’ve been very quiet but to cite [Military] bases and allow Americans to carry weapons in our country up and down and going after Al-Qaeda, you’re telling those people that you’ve joined the war against them so you are a legitimate target.”
Source:classfmonline.com