The Ghana – US security agreement was first signed in Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s governance, in 1962. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations was on 18th April 1961. Senegal was the first African country to have signed a military agreement with US.
The second agreement was signed under the Rawlings administration by Victor Gbeho, the then Foreign Affairs Minister on 24th February, 1998. . This agreement allowed US military personnel to use guns in Ghana, had tax waivers/duty waivers on agreed tools and equipments to be brought to Ghana and even used their US Id cards as a license for driving here in Ghana. This agreement had no exit clause nor stipulated time frame for operation, therefore binds Ghana till date.This agreement breached the laws of the land as it didn’t go through parliament stipulated in the 1992 constitution article 1742.
In October 2003, Kufour’s administration signed the ‘Non Surrender Agreement’, a military agreement with the US. This agreement passed through parliament as a constitutional requirement.
This agreement saw criticisms from the opposition NDC, as they accused the government of selling the sovereignty of Ghana for 4 million US Dollars. Others said there is a US military base being established in Ghana. Some articles even suggested there may be a secret underground tunnel from the US embassy to the Kotoka International Airport.
It took George Bush, the then president of US on 28th April, 2008, during his visit to Ghana to clear the air. In his speech, he said, ‘I know there is rumors in Ghana. All Bush is coming to do is convince you to put a big military base here. That’s baloney.’
Hannah Tetteh, the Foreign Minister under the Mahama administration signed a ‘Logistics Support Agreement’ with the US, a security agreement just like the others on 28th April, 2015. The secrecy of this deal even baffles everyone as it not only didn’t go through parliament, but was even signed in Stuttgart, Germany before proceeding its conclusions in Ghana. In this agreement, the US military were entitled to accommodation, warehousing/storage facility, runways and landing space for their air crafts, base operation support among others. This agreement did not go through parliament, neither was there a copy of this agreement left for Ghana. She also didn’t state any detail of this agreement in her transition note.
Earlier that year, precisely 12th February, 2015, there was a letter from the Ministry if Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of Defense to make Ghana a US military base to fight Book Haram in Nigeria. This sought to deploy 200 US Marine Forces, US Aircrafts, approval to fly weapons and amunitions in Ghana amongst others. There was also a US Air force base established in Burma Camp. An agreement was established on 20th March, 2015 for this to hold signed by Alex Segbefia.
Now the blue print is, under the Mahama administration, there was an establishment of a US military base in Ghana to fight Boko Haram and the public was not in the know, neither did it pass through parliament.
Dominic Nitiwul, the current Minister of Defense has also signed a similar security agreement with US which was ratified by parliament somewhere 20th to 23rd March, 2018. This agreement merges the earlier agreements in addition to Obanga Mi Express (training on our coast and oil protection) and National Disaster response training. The exceptionality on this agreement is that, it includes a termination clause on both party ends that demands a written year notice for termination of agreement unlike the others.
This agreement had follow all due processes ie, Cabinet Approval, Attorney General’s Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Security, Ghana Armed Forces amongst others to make inputs to the agreement. This was later brought to parliament for ratification. The joint committee on Security, Defense and Parliamentary Affairs sat on this. At the time of sitting, the NPP MP’s were 10, and the NDC MP’s were 14, including James Agalga, who was the former deputy minister of interior in the previous administration.
The Minority (NDC) who formed the simple majority at the committee level together with the others, approved of the said agreement after its deliberations.
My question is, why didn’t Hon. James Agalga and his colleagues throw out the agreement since they formed the majority at the time of sitting in the committee. Clearly, there is no cause of alarm about the deal.
Just like in 2003, the opposition NDC is accusing this government of selling the sovereignty of Ghana for 20 million US Dollars. This said amount of money, per the agreement is to train and equip the Ghana military and not a financial value for the contract.
It is therefore woeful for NDC to mislead the public to demonstrate against a deal they themselves have signed before and been involved in the process. The argument they make of a potential terrorism attraction on this agreement is ridiculous and a breach of common sense. In 2015, they even signed an agreement for the US to stage and execute a fight against Book Haram didn’t even bring about a terrorism act in Ghana not to mention of the GITMO Two who were professional terrorist who lived amongst us.
Ghana is safe, peaceful and blessed with freedom. Let’s keep it that way and stop spreading fear and panic into the masses just to score political points.
God bless our Homeland Ghana
And Make our Nation Great and strong
Strategic Security Network International
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