Gitmo and the stab in the back by foreign interest

E. Ablorh-Odjidja

January 16, 2016

Know by now that the two Gitmo detainees have already been settled in Ghana. The unpleasantness of the deal is now public and the indignation is mounting.

Slowly, some of us are surmising that Ghana has been dealt a bad hand. To be blunt, she has been stabbed in the back - again!

But wait, the first one was the coup of 1966 when we had a regime change imposed on us, for the promise of a democracy that never came and a prosperity that has been illusory.

And now, the underlying pattern in the two instances of acceptances is the foolish belief that other's foreign policy objectives are ours.

The US cared less about the consequences from the 1966 coup and would care even lesser about outcomes from Obama’s settlement of the detainees in Ghana.

Obama's transfer of detainees to Ghana had not the same import as the carrying out of a coup to disrupt the political equilibrium of Ghana. However, how the general polity in the US felt of both situations would be the same.

In the end, no control over detainees' behavior, once they landed in Ghana.  What happened next was entirely up to Ghanaians.

That self-distancing would have a common feel for the polity, like tossing of a grenade into a crowd and walking away. 

Today, a Reuter headline claimed "Burkina troops retake hotel after Islamist attack kills dozens" The geographic proximity to Ghana must serve as warning.

Islamic trouble afoot in the region and in the midst of this, the two detainees were settled in Ghana.  Where was the trust we placed in Obama?

In 1965, Mr. Franklin Williams, a prominent Black civil rights lawyer was appointed as America’s ambassador to Ghana.  A fellow Black and it ended up with Nkrumah's overthrow.

Mr. Williams obituary in the New York Times, published in 1990, credited him "with bringing about substantial improvement (between Ghana and the US) during the three years he spent in Accra."

The obituary never mentioned the coup on Ambassador William's watch. But the dire consequences from this coup reverberated across Africa.

Nor was the hindsight view that Ambassador heritage was useful as decoy for US cold war policy enforcement in Ghana. 

But try explaining to some Ghanaians the folly and greed of the two Ghanaian soldiers, Kotoka and Africa, who bought the US' policy for the overthrew Nkrumah, only to bring Ghana to her knees. Instantly, your sanity and not theirs, would be doubted.

The trust between the US and Ghana, as big as it got under Obama, was abused by his policy planners in that they never cared about consequences for the detainees' transfer. 

Just like Ambassador Williams and a passion for Black solidarity became a screen for the removal of Nkrumah, similarly, Obama’s was used to remove what became a torn in US domestic policy and to plant same into Ghana.

Enter Obama in the White House in 2009, the first Black president of the US, with connections to the continent of Africa.  That same year, Obama visited Ghana and this country became drunk on pride affection.

And now, the affection has been used for something else. 

You may argue that the danger in the release of the detainees was not as intentional as the 1966 coup. Nevertheless, we should also entertain the view that something unpredictable now was planted the moment they got to Ghana.

Ghana, like the rest of Africa, is a sectional tinder box.  The endless religious conflicts in places like, Nigeria, Central African Republic, the two Sudans, Mali, Kenya and others should have provided a cautionary tale.

Gitmo was an outcome of Islamic anguish - a grand boondoggle for America.  Now Obama has unloaded some part of it on Ghana.

It just so happened that Ms. Hanna Tetteh, our Minister of Foreign Affairs, perhaps, found out that Ghana could have  been misled - "that the two released detainees are dangerous," according to WikiLeaks.

Ms. Tetteh promised to seek clarification from the US government.  Of course, this clarification might be an admission of failure in policy or a code for asking if the US would take back the released detainees.

A Mr. David Fernell at the US Embassy in Ghana responded, as if in answer to Ms. Tetteh silent request, that "it would not be possible to return the Guantanamo detainees which (the Ghana) government has accepted to accommodate in Ghana for two years."

Poor gullible Ghana bought the upkeep of the detainees for two years. 

Thus, the presence of the detainees in Ghana brought accusations of corruption, or fear of an Al Qaeda revenge, if refused.  But it shouldn't be forgotten that the prone for corruption once led to a coup.  These are the facts of life in Ghana.

President Johnson had no thought of the wellfare of Ghana in 1966.  For Obama, closing Gitmo, at all cost, was not only a domestic policy issue.  It was central to his legacy building project. 

Nevertheless, more detainees and refugees for Ghana had been predicted, according to Fox News.

That  two other people from Rwanda genocidaires, who were tried by the International Criminal Tribunal would also be allowed to settle in Ghana.

Some displaced Syrians with relatives in Ghana would also follow, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Here, we have a country already burdened with problems that have not been solved for decades. And for a vainglorious moment in 2016, our leaders are piling on more - rushing to provide shelter for actors already deemed dangerous by others.

Reasonable response to requests must come with the consideration of consequences. The need to shake down a tree for the fruit must also come in tandem with the consequence of rattling the bee's nest on that same tree!

Compassion for refugee alone, as offered by President Mahama, is not a reasonable response.

Unlike the US, the balance between Christians and Muslims populations in Ghana is almost the same.  But a conflagration started by one or two religious fanatics  can burn 24 million people.

A memorable moment for Ghanaians was one when Dr. Kofi Awunor, a prominent African writer and member of this same NDC government inGhana, was accidentally killed in a militant  Islamic militant uprising in Kenya. 

Unfortunately, a fission has started, at the coming of the Gitmo settlement. The Christian council is against the idea while the Muslim Association is asking for compassion to keep the detainees.

Hopefully there will be peace.  And the differences between the two religious groups may not get worse. But is it necessary for the Obama government to impose this on Ghana?

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, January 16, 2016.

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