{"id":184450,"date":"2016-01-25T16:01:23","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T16:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=184450"},"modified":"2016-01-25T16:01:23","modified_gmt":"2016-01-25T16:01:23","slug":"the-gitmo-saga-beyond-the-state-of-fear-and-panic-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/01\/the-gitmo-saga-beyond-the-state-of-fear-and-panic-article\/","title":{"rendered":"GITMO Saga: Beyond the State of Fear and Panic [article]"},"content":{"rendered":"
The tale is told of a gravely-ill patient at the Okomfo Anokye hospital in Kumasi whose survival depended on an urgent infusion of blood.\u00a0 Just as the medical team was on the point of administering the procedure, the patient mustered the last gasp of breath in him and muttered. \u201cI hope you made sure the donor was does not belong to the NDC\u201d Being Oseikrom, it\u2019s not a stretch to guess the hapless patient was a dye- in- the wool NPP, eber.<\/p>\n
Public discourse and Politics in the 24 years of the 4th<\/sup> Republic of Ghana have all been about partisan adversarial posturing. The notions of national interest and national cohesion have been jettisoned by those who are supposed to govern in our name and on our behalf. Instead, the people\u2019s behalf has been replaced by the parochial and debilitating practice of \u201cwhat position will serve our peculiar partisan interests?\u201d<\/p>\n And so it has been with the matter of the resettlement in Ghana of two ex-detainees of the notorious Guantanamo Bay detention centre of the United Sates of America. The raging public debate, largely ill-informed, is not premised on what is in Ghana\u2019s national interest, but what will give the largest boost to the political fortunes of the NDC & NPP in the run up to November\u2019s Presidential and Parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n I am straining at the leashes to establish what interest the churches have in this matter to propel or justify their central involvement. By the same token, I cannot fathom what purpose is served by the so-far divisive pronouncements by spokespersons of the national Chief Imam and the head of the Shia faction of the Muslim faith in Ghana.<\/p>\n Ironically these same religious leaders are pontificating that this matter must not be treated as a Christian- Muslim feud at the same time as they demand and insist to be at the centre of very delicate diplomatic discussions between Ghana and the United States of America. If anyone finds out why our religious leaders have turned sought to inject divine intervention in this matter, please let me in on the secret.<\/p>\n And so like everything else in Ghana, discussions about the merits or otherwise of us hosting two ex-detainees for at least two years, have degenerated into very shrill but largely uniformed posturing. Most Ghanaians are unaware of the bald facts of the basic facts to aid them to contribute to the discourse and arrive at informed conclusions about whether it is or not in Ghana\u2019s national interest.<\/p>\n For now all we can agree on is that \u2018Oman\u2019 Ghana is in a deeply agitated state of fear and panic and apparently facing an imminent terrorist attack. Ghanaians have developed a bunker mentality which fosters deniers of fundamental human rights the excuse to crush all freedoms in the name of our collective national security. The relationship between Ghana and the United States of America is being stretched to near breaking point.<\/p>\n And all for what? A lack of answers to the key questions of 1) What informed the decision that led to Ghana accepting to host two Yemeni Ex-detainee \u2018aliens\u2019 in our midst?; 1)Are we alone in making such an arrangement with the US?; 2) What dangers are posed to us by the decision we took?;\u00a0 3)Are the arrangements in breach of the normal rules governing international diplomatic relations or any of the laws of\u00a0 Ghana?; 4)Has the manner of prosecution of this matter likely to have potential permanent injury to our relations with the US in particular, and other countries in general?<\/p>\n