Mills must redeem Ghana’s ‘sinking’ image – NPP

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has called on government to do everything possible to redeem the country’s sinking international image.

In a press statement signed by the General Secretary the Party, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, the NPP called on the NDC government to hear the cry of President Rawlings and support humanitarian efforts in Somalia.

According to the NPP although President Rawlings, the African Union High Representative for Somalia, has been frantically appealing to the world to come to the aid of Somalia, President Mills is allowing his family feud with the founder of his party, to influence Ghana’s foreign Policy direction in this matter to the detriment of the starving millions in Somalia.

Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie popularly known as Sir John also said President Mills has allowed personal relations that affected his stance in the Ivorian crisis to affect his position on what is happening in Somalia.

GHANA MUST SUPPORT HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS IN SOMALIA

For the past few months the former President of the Republic of Ghana and Founder of the governing National Democratic Congress, Mr Jerry John Rawlings, in his capacity as the African Union High Representative for Somalia, has been frantically appealing to the world to come to the aid of Somalia, as famine grips the Horn of Africa.

The New Patriotic Party would have expected that the President of the Republic of Ghana would have seen this humanitarian crisis and the appeal from Mr Rawlings as an opportunity to redeem Ghana’s current low image in African affairs and show the way by leading in the humanitarian effort. Ghana’s response, however, has been woefully uncaring and diplomatically embarrassing.

It appears President JEA Mills has allowed his family feud with the Founder of his party, the NDC, to influence Ghana’s foreign policy direction in this matter to the detriment of the starving millions of fellow Africans at the Horn of Africa.

Many international diplomats are wondering “how come Ghana has abandoned its own son”, former President Rawlings, in this life-saving campaign for Somalia. At the African Union pledging conference held last Thursday, August 25, for Somalia, Ghana could not even send a high-powered delegation.

This is the second time in under one year that Ghana has betrayed its Pan-African tradition in two pressing matters which demanded of us to be our African brother’s keeper.

In the first such diplomatic blunder, President Mills allowed his personal loyalty to the defeated Laurent Gbagbo to undermine the collective international efforts at the time to see to it that the democratic wishes of the people of La Cote d’Ivoire were duly respected for Mr Gbagbo to handover peacefully to the legitimately elected President, Alassane Ouattara.

The deadly consequences of the wishy-washy position of a country like Ghana fuelling Gbagbo’s intransigence were that thousands of Ivorians lost their lives and over a million people were displaced.

The New Patriotic Party is calling on President Mills not to confuse personal interest with the national interest. He should stop this disastrous governance philosophy of allowing his personal issues to dictate Ghana’s foreign policy.

Any well-meaning, far-sighted head of state would have seized the moral authority and diplomatic opportunity to take a decisive lead in supporting the efforts of his predecessor (and founder of his own political party) to bring relief to the people of a neighbouring country. But, not Ghana’s Dzi Wo Fie Asem Mills.

Our information is that Ghana is yet to make any serious financial commitment to the relief efforts for the famine people of Somalia. In fact, sources at the Foreign Affairs Ministry speak of a possible $100,000 donation from Ghana. If true, this would be far, far short of what has been offered by the newest nation in Africa, Southern Sudan, and certainly less than what is being pledged by Nigeria, Algeria, South Africa and other seemingly more caring nations.

The AU received $350 million in cash contribution at Thursday’s drought aid conference, with $300 million coming from the African Development Bank and $51 million from other African sources, including the countries of the continent. The Ghana Government must let the people of Ghana know how much Ghana’s contribution to this $51 million was.

President Mills should begin to do a lot more to redeem the image of Ghana in Africa and do the Godly thing by helping to save the lives of our brothers and sisters in the Horn of Africa. Let us honour the Almighty and our Pan-Africanism in creed, speech and deed, indeed.

Thank you.

Signed

Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie

General Secretary, the New Patriotic Party