{"id":182337,"date":"2016-01-17T11:01:52","date_gmt":"2016-01-17T11:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=182337"},"modified":"2016-01-17T11:01:52","modified_gmt":"2016-01-17T11:01:52","slug":"we-fought-ebola-lets-accept-ex-gitmo-detainees-agalga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=182337","title":{"rendered":"We ‘fought’ Ebola; let\u2019s accept ex-Gitmo detainees’ \u2013 Agalga"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Deputy Interior Minister and Member of Parliament for Builsa North in the Upper East Region, James Agalga, has asked compassionate Ghanaians lamenting over the decision to host two former Guantanamo Bay detainees, to accept the duo just as Ghana accepted the request to be used as a Launchpad to fight the deadly Ebola disease in the sub-region.<\/p>\n

Government has been heavily criticized for \u2018clandestinely\u2019 bringing in the two men from the USA without prior notice or discussions.<\/p>\n

But speaking on Citi FM\u2019s<\/strong> news analysis and current affairs programme, \u2018The Big Issue\u2019<\/strong>, Mr. Agalga explained that government after broad consultations and analysis of the situation, concluded that admitting the two, was not going to pose any security risk to the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout our history, you find that Ghana has taken decisions that may not be very popular, but at the end of the day, those decisions yielded certain dividends for all to see. The very recent example is the President\u2019s decision to allow Ghana to be used as a Launchpad for the fight against Ebola. There was a lot of public outcry that the decision was going to import Ebola into Ghana. That didn\u2019t happen and our effort clearly helped in fighting the disease in our neighbouring countries. The UN Chief called the President to commend him highly for his intervention. That wasn\u2019t a very popular decision but today Ghana is taking credit for that humanitarian gesture, I want us to consider the decision to agree to admit the Guantanamo Bay detainees in that same light\u201d the Deputy Minister pleaded.<\/p>\n

\u201cGhana has always expressed compassion whenever humanity is pushed to the wall. Sometimes the decisions we take may appear to be unpopular, but that is what makes Ghana a unique country. When Congo went up in flames, Kwame Nkrumah intervened. When he did that, the opposition elements at the time; the UP tradition, were very vociferous in condemning it. And yet Kwame Nkrumah took the decision. Today Ghana is acclaimed as a peace-loving country not just because internally we enjoy peace, but because we have also sent our troops to certain areas of war across the globe. We did same under President Rawlings when Liberia went up in flames. And we know the role Ghanaian soldiers played in Liberia and Sierra Leone and today those countries are not failed states.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Agalga belittled suggestions that Ghana automatically becomes an enemy to terrorists by portraying itself as an ally of America.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose analyses for me are not very scientific. Ghana has not sent soldiers anywhere to fight terrorism. Those interventions Ghana made in Liberia and the likes had nothing to do with religious extremism and so we cannot simply liken happenings in Mali and Afghanistan to the types of interventions we have made. That analogy does not fit us at all\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cBut I can assure you that, it is our collective effort to ensure that terrorism of all forms is uprooted in our sub-region. In so doing, you may have to pay a certain prize. But it will be extremely reckless to sit on the fence and say that, if you join the rest of your neighbours in fighting terrorism, you are likely to become a target and so you won\u2019t get involved. That type of attitude is \u2018unghanaian\u2019 and I don\u2019t think anybody could want to subscribe to that type of philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ebola and terrorism are unrelated<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Mustapha
Mustapha Hamid<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mustapha Hamid, Spokesperson for the New Patriotic Party\u2019s 2016 Flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo, who was a panellist on the programme, rebuffed Mr. Agalga\u2019s Ebola-terrorism-analysis, saying the two scenarios are completely distinct from each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point that we\u2019ve been making all week while; the NDC government and its communicators are not getting it. Now they are trying to confuse Ebola with terrorism. Ebola and terrorism are not the same issues that we are talking about. We are talking about people who are schooled in an ideology; who believe that carrying out the tenets of that ideology, is not only heroic but has divine sanction. And we are all aware of people who using religion can virtually hold a whole nation to ransom\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr. Hamid, who is also a Lecturer in Islamic Studies\u00a0at the Department of Religion and Human Values at the University of Cape Coast, explained that the extremists per their ideology will automatically declare Ghana an enemy because it is an ally to America, which is their main target.<\/p>\n

He warned Ghana risks being attacked because in the view of the extremists, the two men would be deemed to be infidels if indeed they have now truly repented as they claim.<\/p>\n

He thus argued that, Ghana cannot escape the consequences of any attack if the extremists decide to hunt for these two men to kill them.<\/p>\n

–
\nBy: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
\nFollow @AfanyiDadzie<\/a>
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