Akufo-Addo accuses Mahama of disregarding Anti-Terrorism Act
The flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has questioned the discretion of President John Mahama in the deal that brought two ex- Guantanamo Bay detainees to Ghana.
He said the President disregarded aspects of the Anti-Terrorism Act (Act 762), which forbade him from entering into the kind of agreement with America on the subject of the two former detainees.
In a tribute to the late Alhaji Alhassan Bin Salih, a former member of the Council of State and a founder member of the NPP, during a special service in his memory in Wa, Nana Akufo-Addo said President Mahama’s attempt to drag the issue into a religious arena was inappropriate.
Last week when President Mahama explained government’s decision to accommodate the two former detainees of America during his meeting with the press in Accra, he made reference to his Christian beliefs and alluded to his compassionate nature.
Nana Akufo-Addo disagreed, however, and insisted that: “if Alhaji Bin Salih were around today, he would be horrified at some of the language being employed by some in the discussions on the resettlement in our country of former Guantanamo Bay detainees.
"Let us disagree by all means on the many political things that confront us, but I pray that we refrain from introducing religious divisions into the debate, for the issue at stake is not a religious one.
“The problem we face is yet another case of the failure of leadership by the President of the Republic and a sad example of his belief that he is answerable to no one, not even to the laws of the Republic, like Section 35 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (Act 762), which, as President, he is sworn to uphold. That law prohibits the transaction into which he has entered with the United States government."
Lawlessness
“Lawlessness at the highest levels of the State cannot produce good governance. Since he (President Mahama) claims that only Presidents Rawlings and Kufuor have the right to criticize him, I would have wished that he had found it worthy to consult both of our two former national leaders before he took this grave decision that has consequences for us all.
"If he had done so, the Ghanaian people may well have been spared the disquieting anxiety, in this time of justifiably heightened fear of global terrorism, that we are being led by a President who, ostensibly in the name of compassion, prefers to ignore laws designed to defend the most sensitive area of all, our nation’s security.”
He asked for prayers for national leaders and “for a good heart to guide us in all we do”.
The late Alhaji Bin Salih, who passed on in October last year, had a long standing political background dating back to his activities in the United Party (UP) and the Northern People’s Party – both of which share the same tradition as the NPP of today.
Nana Addo said Bin Salih’s “honesty and integrity were palpable; so much so, that some found him to be unbending and rigid. But as I see it, and as I suspect he also saw it, there must always be room in our midst for a rigid person so that the rest of us can have a moral compass to direct our responses and actions”.
He said “the need for men like Alhaji Bin Salih is greatest during times like these when Ghana is being buffeted by the bastardization of our public affairs.
“When public officials cut corners with laid down regulations and laws as happens regularly under this Administration, we need a Bin Salih to insist on things being done properly.
When sole sourcing becomes the mode of procurement in the public sector in brazen defiance of the public procurement law, we need a Bin Salih, and when corruption becomes the by-word for our nation, we certainly need a Bin Salih.”
Nana Addo, accompanied by a powerful team that included party executives and parliamentarians, visited the tomb site of the late Alhaji Bin Salih at the central mosque of the Ahmadiya Muslim Mission in Wa.