US military base agreement: Withdraw to save Ghana’s sovereignty – Minority

The Minority in Parliament is demanding immediate withdrawal from the military agreement between the United States of America and Ghana to save Ghana’s sovereignty.

According to the agreement between Ghana and the USA, the West African country would, among others, provide “unimpeded access to and use of agreed facilities and areas to United State forces, United States contractors, and others as mutually agreed. Such agreed facilities and area: or portions thereof, provided by Ghana shall be designated as either for exclusive use by United States forces or to be jointly used by United States forces and Ghana. Ghana shall also provide access to and use of a runway that meets the requirements of United States forces.

The Minority after reading the details of the agreement is the view that, “The agreement has been drafted in a manner that does not state a termination point. In other words, it would exist in perpetuity. This, therefore, binds all successive governments and yet little or no input was sought from political stakeholders especially those with the capacity to form the government.”

In a statement signed by the Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu, added that “We find the non-availability of restraints on movements of United States Army personnel in Ghana as spelt out in Article 12 of the agreement, troubling, as it opens up the country in a manner that undermines both our sovereignty and security”.

In view of the Minority’s understanding of the Defence Cooperation Agreement, they've called on the government to withdraw from the agreement and hold a stakeholders consultation forum to peruse the agreement to favour the African country.

“We wish to stress that the primary interest of any truly free State as Ghana, is the preservation of its sovereignty and the autonomy of its people. The proposed agreement denigrates both, as well as the authority of our government and laws.

In light of the above, we demand an immediate withdrawal of the agreement from Parliament pending the holding of broad consultations and a thorough national discussion involving all relevant stakeholders”

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