You
need not to be reminded that Ghana is a sovereign nation and this inalienable
sovereignty resides in none other but the people of Ghana and not the citizens
or government of United States. Article 1 of our 1992 constitution emphatically
states that, “The Sovereignty of Ghana resides in the people of Ghana in whose
name and for whose welfare the powers of government are to be exercised in the
manner and within the limits laid down in this Constitution”. From this
entrenched constitutional provision, it is very clear that government is
enjoined to at all-time, act in the supreme interest of Ghanaians and NOT
jeopardize same for any consideration. The welfare of Ghanaians must always
take precedence in all the actions and inactions of our government; having
entered into a social contract with the citizenry.
There
are a million dollar reasons why Ghanaians are justified in their outrage and
apprehension about government’s decision to host the two ex-Guantanamo
detainees in the country. I am going to let you into some of the reasons why you
should be very much concerned and deeply worried by this unpopular decision:
1 1) The decision is not consistent with the
Constitution of the Republic and our laws; precisely, the Anti-Terrorism Act
(Act 762) which completely frowns on the admission of suspected terrorists into
Ghana. What about our right to know (Article 21 of the Constitution)? You
should be concerned that your government consistently violates the nation’s
laws with such impunity just to please the American government and President
Obama in this case.
2 2) The
Parliament of Ghana and by extension, the good people of this country were not
consulted at all before government took this critical decision which has a lot
of national security implications. There cannot be any justification for this
deliberate infraction which clearly contravenes the explicit provisions in
Article 75 of the 1992 Constitution which enjoins government to seek
Parliamentary approval in such foreign or external conventions and considerations.
3 3) This
whole issue is being surreptitiously handled by the government for no
justifiable reasons. The foreign policy considerations are shrouded in secrecy
as government makes available sketchy information about the suspected
terrorists. No wonder the Interior Minister as well as the Minister for Foreign
Affairs are both claiming to have “little knowledge” about this Gitmo deal even
though they are both key members of the National Security Council. You can
imagine how much you the ordinary Ghanaian know.
4 4) Ghanaians
haven’t been told the extent to which their movement is going to be curtailed.
Whether they can have a conjugal life here in Ghana. Whether they can go to the
mosque and possibly make friends with their Muslim counterparts. Whether their
friends in Ghana and abroad are allowed to visit them. Whether their family
members in Yemen and elsewhere are permitted to visit them. Whether they are
allowed to use phones that have internet facility because the business of
terrorism has been over simplified with the advent of technology and the
internet in particular.
5) The
ex-detainees were actually brought into the country before government made that
information public. In fact, a newspaper in the United States, the fox magazine
published this story before our government found the need to inform the
citizens of Ghana about it. Simply put, government
wanted this whole arrangement to be done covertly without letting Ghanaians
know until they were exposed by the fox magazine. Our government, by this
conduct, has exhibited bad faith much to the chagrin of the masses.
T 6) The
BBC had posited that the American government often compensates countries that
agree to take these risks by accepting to host such terror suspects from Guantanamo
bay. Why would our government jeopardize the security of the State because of
monetary gains? It cannot be true that government did not receive some millions
of dollars from the American government on this deal. Even in Ghana, when an
individual is wrongly jailed, the State is compelled by our laws, to adequately
compensate him/her. How much more America, which is deemed to be the bastion of
human right? Again, it is a fact that the last ex-Guantanamo detainee that was
resettled in the UK by name, Shaker
Aamer, a father-of-four, who spent 13 years at the prison,
was compensated with over US$ 1 million (GBP £ 1million) by the US government.
So the Ghanaian government must come clean on this.
7 7) The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a United
States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It was established
in January 2002, to house or detain extraordinary
dangerous people or hardened
criminals and prosecute them for various war crimes; according to the US
Secretary of Defense at the time, Mr. Donald Rumsfeld.
8 8) It is for this
reason that the US Congress and Senate (which is akin to Ghana’s Parliament)
overwhelmingly voted against any attempts to resettle any ex-Guantanamo
detainee on US soil because such detainees are deemed to be ‘extraordinary
dangerous’ in the words of the former US Secretary of Defense.
9) So if the US, which is said to be the most powerful
country in the World, with all their first class security systems, fear to
accommodate ex-detainees from the notorious Guantanamo bay, it would be
absolutely preposterous and “foolish” on the part of anybody to think that
‘poor Ghana’ can handle such extra
ordinary dangerous people. A country with a very porous security system
where for instance, on 25th December, 2012 (Christmas day), a
Nigerian terrorist connected to al-Qaeda, by name Umar Farouk Abdul Mutalib
made a smooth passage through our only international airport with some
dangerous explosives (bombs) ostensibly to cause havoc at the US. Luck, however
eluded him when he got to his destination (US) and was arrested at Detroit
Metropolitan Airport by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
10) A country like ours, which cannot even fight beg bugs
that have invaded our schools, cannot fight the dangers posed some Fulani
herdsmen who are terrorizing our people every now and then, cannot fight
cholera, cannot fight corruption, cannot fight unemployment and energy crisis;
now wants to add terrorism to its woes? Are we really getting our mental
faculties right? God save us.
1 11) To
think that America would ever put Ghana’s national security interest ahead of
theirs is not only intellectually corrupt and smacks of gargantuan dishonestly,
but also foolhardy and nonsensical to say the least.
12) Please do not be deceived by the excuse that the said ex-Guantanamo
detainees, Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad
Salih have been cleared of any wrongdoing and that, they were innocent people
who were wrongly incarcerated. If this is true, why is it that the US, with
their so called impeccable human rights records, having visited such
excruciating injustice on the detainees, now refusing to accept them in their
territory as a compensation? Again, why
hasn’t their country of origin accepted these two ex-detainees? Why must it be
Ghana? I really do not care if other countries took same risk. I am concerned
about the dangers this decision exposes my country to because Ghana is the only
country I have.
113) If
they are not terrorists, why were they caged at Guantanamo for over 14 years
together with other dangerous terrorists? How can we be sure that their
extremist ideology hasn’t been badly influenced by the long detention? Which
court of competent jurisdiction in the World exonerated them of any wrongdoing?
For the records, no court in this world ever tries Guantanamo detainees let
alone to exonerate them. Terrorism is a state of mind and we can’t be sure that
they have fully reformed. In fact, only when the Ghanaian government is
feverishly trying to allay the fears of Ghanaians on this issue, a leaked
document from the US Defense Department on Wednesday, 13th January
indicate that indeed one of the detainees (Mahmoud Omar Bin-Atef) pose high
risk to the country and indeed all the allies of the United States. You can check the following link for the
necessary details: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wikileaks-files/guantanamo-bay-wikileaks-files/8477498/Guantanamo-Bay-detainee-file-on-Mahmoud-Omar-Muhammed-Bin-Atef-US9YM-000202DP.html
114) In
fact, there are records to prove that several ex-Guantanamo detainees went back
into terrorism after they were initially set free by the US government and were
resettled in other countries. Here, mention can be made of former detainees
like Abdullah Mehsud, Mullah Shahzada,
Maulvi Abdul Ghaffar, Mohammed Ismail, Abdul Rahman Noor, and Mohammed Nayim
Farouq and several others. Details can be obtained from the following link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists-of-former-Guantanamo-Bay-detainees-alleged-to-have-returned-to-terrorism. Again, in 2012,
one Al-Kossi, an ex-Gitmo detainee who was resettled in Sudan went back into
terrorism two years after his resettlement.
He is now said to be a Chief terror in Yemen and a danger to the World.
15) The
truth of the matter is that these detainees are now more dangerous than ever.
Their fundamentalist ideology at the time they were arrested by the US has
further been accentuated by the 14 years of incarceration in Guantanamo. “They
may not have anything against Ghana as a nation, but they certainly do have
something against America, especially so because America has confessed that it
had no evidence for which it incarcerated them for 14 years. A school of
jihadist ideology is that: ‘The friend of your enemy is your enemy.
That
one is a non-negotiable aspect of the ideology that feeds al-Qaeda, Taliban,
al-Shabab and Boko Haram, so we have shown by this act, which we believe to be
an act of generosity and compassion, but in their mind, it is an act of
complicity in the sense that we have shown ourselves to be allies of America.
And Osama Bin Laden, who is, if you want, the ideologue of the jihadist
movement, has stipulated this very clearly that America and all its allies are
legitimate targets of attacks” an Islamic scholar asserted.
16) Arabs
by nature, are very temperamental and vindictive. Even the Holy Book makes
allusion to this. It would be recalled that one of America’s allies, Kenya has
since 2011 suffered several attacks from terrorist groups including al-Shabab
and al-Qaeda because of their relationship with America. One of such attacks
(on Westgate shopping mall), unfortunately resulted in the death of one of our
own, Prof Awonor Williams of blessed memory. Why can’t our government learn
lesson from the Kenyan experience as well as other countries that are believed
to be allies of America?
17) I
am still shocked that my President, could come out boldly to state
categorically that Ghana is an ally of the United States thereby making us a
legitimate target for attacks by terrorists. This statement which the President
made at the flagstaff house on Thursday, 12th January, 2016 during a
press briefing is very explosive and jeopardizes the security of the entire
nation.
18) The
president again says that the detainees pose no threat to Ghana. So if this is
true, then why is government not allowing them to live a normal life in the
country? Why must they be put on a 24-hour surveillance by national security? Somebody
is just being economical with the facts and I think it is about time government
was told that they can’t take us for granted. Government can’t blow both hot
and cold at the same time.
19) As
a non-Christian myself, I find it quite disconcerting and uncomfortable for the
President to single out Christianity (the Bible) as the religion that makes a strong case for showing
COMPASSION on fellow humans; as if to say that the other religions do not
preach same with similar alacrity. Respectfully Mr. President, I think you
could have made your point without bringing in the religious angle or leave
that for your communicators. If you want to prove to us that you are indeed
compassionate, then you might as well set all prisoners free especially those
who are languishing in our prisons even though they’ve not been tried by any
court of competent jurisdiction and found guilty for various offenses. You
don’t sacrifice the security of your nation on the basis of showing compassion
to others, Mr. President.
20) If
Ghanaians are to judge you with this “compassion theory”, then I’m afraid you won’t
obtain a pass mark because a compassionate leader wouldn’t subject his people
to four years of dumsor and still counting leading to the collapse of several
businesses and when the people complain, he tells them that those businesses
are not being smart. A compassionate leader wouldn’t be suffocating his people
with killer taxes, astronomical hikes in the cost of utilities and debilitating
economic and living conditions among others.
21) Ghanaians
should even be more worried that these “dangerous guys” are brought into the
country in an election year, where the stakes are at all-time high. Government must be told to be extra cautious
because the peace of this country cannot be compromised for political
expediency.
22) We
live in a country where recently ten of our young people (many of whom are
university graduates) including Nazir Alema, Abubakar Mohammed, Abdul Rafik,
Shakira Mohammed and six others were widely reported to have been recruited
into ISIS, a notorious terrorist group comprising of religious zealots. With
this in mind, why would anyone think that this is the right time for Ghana to
entertain people associated with Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda? What at all
is wrong with our government?
23) To many, it is not surprising that almost all the
international security analysts we have in the country apart from one Irbad
Ibrahim (whose reasons do not add up anyway) are vehemently kicking against
this decision because of the danger it poses to our national security.
24) So
what would have happened if President Mahama and the government had not
accepted the request by the US government to host the detainees which has now
put the whole country at risk? Mustn’t we always err on the side of caution as
a country? In 2007, when President Kufuor rejected America’s request to
establish a US military camp (AFRICOM) in the country in adherence to the
legitimate concerns raised by Ghanaians at the time, did Ghana lose anything? Did
we lose our bilateral relationship with the US government? Why can’t President
Mahama take a cue from this Statesmanly action of former President Kufuor and
put the security and welfare of Ghanaians first?
25) Last
but not least, religious groups in the country like the Catholic Bishops
Conference, Christian Council of Ghana, Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic
Council and a number of Islamic Scholars including Dr. Mustapha Hamid have all
joined the bandwagon to put pressure on government to rescind this dangerous
decision which is now making Ghana a legitimate target for attacks by
terrorists or religious extremists.
CONCLUSION
If
the sovereignty of this country indeed resides in the people of Ghana as
provided for in Article 1 of our 1992 Constitution and if President Mahama
acknowledges the fact that his social contract is with the people of Ghana,
whose supreme interest he has sworn to uphold at all-time and NOT the interest
of the US government, then I expect him and his government to listen to the
loud cry of ordinary Ghanaians and accordingly do the honorably thing because
the voice of the people they say, is the voice of God.
Thank
you.
Compiled by,
A
brother in the struggle
#ForGodAndCountry
IDDI
MUHAYU-DEEN
Youth
Activist/Social Commentator
Former
NUGS Secretary
(0245335195)
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