A rejoinder to: Katakyie Addresses Kwesi Pratt and Co.

Author: Katakyie Kwame Opoku Agyemang (a.k.a. Paulucious)

Hello Katakyie and Co,

You wrote:

"This writ-up seeks to expose the hypocrisy and opportunistic preoccupation of Kwesi Pratt Jnr, Koku Anyidohu and other mouth-watering guys in the National Disappointed Congress (NDC) who are bent on taking our beloved country to the dark ages through their unguarded pronouncements"

I wonder what makes you think Kwesi Pratt, Jnr., must not be taken on his word to be CPP but Kweku Baako reamains CPP for you! Any way, why "mouth-watering guys"? Are you a cannibal? Why do they make you salivate? This is quite a curious way of describing human beings, what are you, a vampire? OK, Mr. Insignificant cannibal, allow those of us looking forward to a mouth-watering turkey this Christmas decide between the NPP Administration of President John Agyekum Kufour and President John Evans Atta Mills, not a vampire. We do not use the same judgemental values.

In our case, we see a man who was very much prepared to sacrifice the sovereignty of the state just for a banquet at the White House or something worse than that! What else explains the synchronisation of lies between Presidents Bush and Kufour to the people of Ghana and the rest of the where Bush would say publicly in Accra that the very idea that the US was looking for a military base in Ghana was BALONEY, and then we later hear from an NPP insider that the scheme was being secretly implemented?

I think the following comment explains to the world the big gulf between the Kufour Administration which sought to sell us to George Bush and the American oil and military industrial complex for thirty pieces of silver. And the honest and demonstrably intelligent Professor-President, who has proved to be his own man to the chagrin of everybody including ex-President Rawlings.

For the ex-President Kufour, it is a completely new ball game. Kufour is a very big thief and Slugger is perfectly right in his regular identification of this individual here on Ghanaweb! This man, according to no less a person than Gabby Asare Ochere-Darko, the Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, was able to enter into secretive military engagements leading to the establishment of USAfriCom headquarters in Ghana, without a single hint to Ghanaians, let alone a public discussion on the matter. We have seen slavery, where some of us sold some of us for whisky and gun powder. We have seen colonialism, where the indirect rule permitted royals, carefully trained to lord it over us were catapulted by the colonialists into the political limelight, and how whilst they get richer, the rest of our populations get poorer. We have also seen our struggles against neo-colonialism and the CIA-Kotoka-Ankrah-Afrifa sabotage of a fundamental path to a meaningful national independence without being tied up to the apron strings of imperialism.

These Danquah-Busia drones whom the CIA referred to as "pathetically pro-Western" (please google, "documents expose cia role in nkrumah overthrow, seeing black") managed to shoot themselves into power and giving Kofi Busia an obvious pass in the name of democracy, after systematically losing all the elections in Ghana since 1951! Even including the ones supervised by their colonialist owners! Please, let us not mince our words when lives are at stake. It is a sin to be silent when men should speak! And when we speak we must call a spade a spade, and a thief, a thief!

The attacks against Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. are misguided. How do you expect Kwesi, the same person who was the first to warn Ghanaians about the attempts by the Kufour Administration to sell-out our sovereignty to the Americans through the establishment of the US Africa Command (USAfriCom) headquarters in Ghana. The brother of the president who was also a minister said it was not true. The last time we heard about it from unimpeachablr a source as Nana Akufo Addo right-hand man, a man who must know, Gabby Asare Ochere-Darko himself.

Kufour is not an ordinary thief. It is therefore all the more important to talk about these kinds of thieves whose activities affect millions of lives at just one go, than say, pick-pockets or even armed robbers! He belongs to a class of thieves who loot nations! How do you compare that with President Mills?

Below was my reaction when I read Ochere-Darko's article. It became very clear to me that the Bush Administration were counting on an NPP victory in the 2008 elections for them to carry out the Africom Headquarters project. Why else would President Bush deny the claim as "Baloney!" whilst the Kufour Administration secretly continuing the implementation?

"This is something that no one among us has the power to do with our sovereignty. It amounts to the attempted robbery of the nation by the force of arms. In a fundamental matter such as this, that has serious implications on our status as an independent nation, that could even mean life or death to Ghanaians, as we have seen in the bombs that continue to fall on marriage ceremonies in Afghanistan, the minimum expectation ought to have been an open democratic national debate and not secretive and conspiratorial manoeuvres." - Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.

Crossed Crocodiles, in Ghanaians Discuss Africom And Obama's Visit", began with the quote above, and proceeded:

Nana Akyea Mensah writes in US Military Base In Ghana in response to a feature article on GhanaWeb by Asare Otchere-Darko, Obama’s Visit – What’s In It For Us And U.S.? Otchere-Darko’s article describes and implies that Kufuor did a deal with Bush and General Ward, bringing the Africa Command into Ghana without informing the Ghanaian people.

… in August 2007 Major-General Ward, who was later confirmed as AFRICOM’s first commander, visited Accra. He held discussions with President Kufuor on “ways of strengthening military cooperation.” His high-powered secret meetings with the President, Minister of Defence and the Chief of Defence Staff triggered huge speculation. Much was made of Maj Gen J B Danquah’s public statement about the visit when he said Maj Gen Ward had ‘done enough to resolve’ Ghana’s concerns about AFRICOM, adding, “I have had the chance to hear [Ward] explain what is the reasoning behind the command, and it’s all about partnership.”

This passage is preceded by:

At the moment the Americans say they are happy to keep the U.S. Africa Command headquarters in Germany, to coordinate all U.S. military and security interests throughout the African continent. But any reasonable assessment must conclude that this can be nothing but a temporary address and arrangement. Ghana should welcome that it is thus the target of America’s desire – and we should make the most of this, using it for our own advantage. After all, the process has already started."

WHEN A DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED PRESIDENT NEGOTIATES A MILITARY OCCUPATION OF THIS SORT OVER HIS OWN TERRITORY, WITHOUT ANY CONSULTATION WITH THE PEOPLE WHO SENT HIM THERE JUST BECAUSE OF THE PRESENCE OF HYDRO CARBONS IN OUR SOIL, I AM VERY SORRY, BUT SUCH AN INDIVIDUAL MUST BE IDENTIFIED AS A THIEF, AND THE PUBLIC MUST BE WARNED TO DEFEND THEMSELVES FROM SUCH INDIVIDUALS IN ORDER NOT TO LOSE THEIR GUARD!

So you see Katakyie and Co, this answers your question: So Kwesi Pratt, what is the rational of preferring Mills' mediocre administration to Kufuor's enduring legacy? Which legacy? The legacy of attempted enslavement of Ghanaians? The legacy of a thief who tries to sell his own people who were kind enough to him to make him their president?

I reproduce below, excerpts of the article by XCrocc: FOOD FOR YOUR THOUGHTS!!!

BEGIN QUOTE:

Nana Akyea Mensah writes in US Military Base In Ghana in response to a feature article on GhanaWeb by Asare Otchere-Darko, Obama’s Visit – What’s In It For Us And U.S.? Otchere-Darko’s article describes and implies that Kufuor did a deal with Bush and General Ward, bringing the Africa Command into Ghana without informing the Ghanaian people.

… in August 2007 Major-General Ward, who was later confirmed as AFRICOM’s first commander, visited Accra. He held discussions with President Kufuor on “ways of strengthening military cooperation.” His high-powered secret meetings with the President, Minister of Defence and the Chief of Defence Staff triggered huge speculation. Much was made of Maj Gen J B Danquah’s public statement about the visit when he said Maj Gen Ward had ‘done enough to resolve’ Ghana’s concerns about AFRICOM, adding, “I have had the chance to hear [Ward] explain what is the reasoning behind the command, and it’s all about partnership.”

This passage is preceded by:

At the moment the Americans say they are happy to keep the U.S. Africa Command headquarters in Germany, to coordinate all U.S. military and security interests throughout the African continent. But any reasonable assessment must conclude that this can be nothing but a temporary address and arrangement. Ghana should welcome that it is thus the target of America’s desire – and we should make the most of this, using it for our own advantage. After all, the process has already started.

The U.S. and Ghanaian militaries have cooperated in numerous joint training exercises, including the African Crisis Response Initiative, an international activity in which the U.S. facilitates the development of an interoperable peacekeeping capacity among African nations. And the head of AFRICOM has already reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to assisting the Ghana Armed Forces “to become more robust”. There is also the African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance program. Beyond that, Ghana and the U.S. have an active bilateral International Military Education and Training program. In 2007, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, the Managing Editor of The Insight newspaper and the energy behind the pressure group Socialist Forum, warned Ghanaians against what he saw to be the looming danger of a U.S. military base in Ghana. He cited, inter alia, the erection of the huge American Embassy complex in Cantonments as evidence of this.

And Otchere-Darko follows it with this:

General T. Hobbins, head of the U.S. Air Forces Europe, has held discussions with his counterparts here on the possibility of establishing “lily pads”, landing and rapid airlift facilities in otherwise deserted terrain in certain strategic sites in Africa. Tamale Airport has come up as one of the “forward operating sites” targeted. That airport is said to have a runway capacity of accommodating massive U.S. C-3 cargo planes and troop transports.

Ghana is also already the site of a U.S.-European Command-funded Exercise Reception Facility that was established to facilitate troop deployments for exercises or crisis response within the region. The direct link to our oil is only too apparent: the Facility came out of Ghana’s partnership with the United States on what is termed a Fuel Hub Initiative. It may sound like a mere gas station for the troops. But the choice of stable, imminently oil-rich Ghana as a Fuel Hub reflects a greater strategic interest in the country than as merely a filling station.

The Americans have not been shy in establishing a clear economic link alongside their military cooperation.

There are already lily pads and a robust American military presence in Ghana, which I have written about previously in this blog.

Kwesi Pratt was one of the first to raise the alarm about oil and US military bases in Africa. In a 2007 interview he said:

Kwesi Pratt: I am very alarmed after reading what is called the Cheney Report. When Bush came to power, he set up a committee chaired by Dick Cheney his Vice President to assess America’s energy requirements up to the year 2015. The Cheney Report actually says that by the year 2015, twenty percent of American oil requirements will be supplied by West Africa and therefore it is important to maintain a foothold in West Africa in order to ensure that oil supplies from West Africa to the United States of America will not be interrupted.

Consequently, the United States is planning to establish military bases across West Africa including Ghana. And I am very worried that at a time when we are celebrating our national independence we are going to tolerate the establishment of foreign military bases, especially American military bases on our soil. The great Osageyfo Dr. Nkrumah, Malcolm X, Kwame Ture, and all of them emphasized that Africa ought to be free from foreign military bases and weapons of mass destruction. We cannot allow that dream to die.

That is why, it is important for us to resist all attempts to establish foreign military bases on African soil especially forces of the United States, must be prevented from establishing on African soil. Clearly because they are not on African soil to protect our interests, they are on African soil to facilitate the exploitation of our resources for the benefit of the tiny minority that controls the wealth of the American people and who are sitting on top of this world exploiting the Chicanos, exploiting the African Americans and exploiting all of the other independent and healthy forces in the United States on America. We have to resist all attempts to build U.S. military bases in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa.

Nana Akyea Mensah writes:

I feel greatly incensed by the casual manner Mr. Ochere-Darko breaks this news as though it is simply a matter of business, and not even making any attempt to explain the basis of the conspiracy that he confesses in the article. What does this mean? According to Asare Ochere Darko, even though the NPP government did not allow Ghanaians to have a say in whether or not they want a US military base on our soil, it is too late for the Atta-Mills government to say “No”! In other words, without any national debate, whether we like it or not the process has already been started and they cannot be reversed, so we are as good as being already occupied by a foreign power! … Is this supposed to mean that the NPP government was simply throwing dust into our eyes whilst plotting secretly to undermine our national independence and sell us to the Americans? Fortunately for Ghana and Africa, the elections did not go their way. From the article under discussion, it seems to me that with Obama and Atta-Mills in power, the same special interests behind the establishment of the military base in Ghana, the military industrial complex of the USA, are acting as ventriloquists, using their local stooges, to revive their diabolic plot, and rope the two newcomers into the deal. Who else could fit better in the role of selling Ghana to the imperialists more than the very right hand man of Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo, the great Asare Ochere-Darko, himself? If you should ask me what it was that worried me most in the article, I believe I would put my finger on the following seven words written by Mr. Ochere-Darko: “After all, the process has already started.” Most of us are still dazed by the question. What this man is virtually telling Ghanaians is that for months, the NPP has been secretly plotting with foreign powers to establish military bases on our lands without letting out a word about it to the Ghanaian public.

The picture above is of Mary Carlin Yates, AFRICOM’s top civilian employee, promising that AFRICOM can help protect Ghana’s fishing rights, and help protect against drugs. But money for these programs was cut from the Pentagon’s budget. As Daniel Volman informs us in AFRICOM from Bush to Obama:

AFRICAN COASTAL AND BORDER SECURITY PROGRAM (ACBS) – provides specialized equipment (such as patrol vessels and vehicles, communications equipment, night vision devices, and electronic monitors and sensors) to African countries to improve their ability to patrol and defend their own coastal waters and borders from terrorist operations, smuggling, and other illicit activities … No dedicated funding was requested for FY 2008 [or in 2007]

With this in mind, I cannot help thinking that Ms. Yates is, in the very best interpretation, being misleading.

Ms. Yates said in Washington on May 12th:

She disclosed that of the four major target areas of its mission-statement, which explicitly are, reducing conflict, improving security, defeating violent extremism and supporting crisis response. The three words that highlight the Command’s activities are “sustained security engagement”. … “When I was U.S. Ambassador in Ghana, we had a robust military-to-military program. We started the State Partnership Program. What we want to do is to find the African partners who are looking to build peace and stability in their nations and in their regions – partnering with those African standby forces as they build their goal is to come online with battalions for each of the five geographic areas by 2010”.

Five battalions do not mean more peace. Just like lots of police in a neighborhood are an indication of crime and violence, lots of soldiers in a country or region are a sign of war and conflict. If it is not there already, they will bring it.

Open and democratic debate is the currency of democracy. It is sadly lacking in many places that call themselves democracies, including being far too lacking in the United States. Mr. Ochere-Darko says:

But we must not ignore America’s interest. After all, whatever his connection to the African continent, Obama is President of America – and acts in the interest of its people at home above all else.

And so far, in terms of policies, Obama has shown himself to be a willing and enthusiastic supporter of the entrenced elites, what Kwesi Pratt calls the tiny minority that controls the wealth of the American people. Obama has allowed a certain amount of democracy theater in his political manueverings so far. But he has carefully closed off any areas of debate he does not wish to entertain. And President Obama seems to be continuing all the same military imperialist programs initiated by Mr. Bush.

I have been an enthusiastic supporter of President Obama. I made my own small contributions to his campaign. He is wildly and justifiably popular in Ghana and Africa. This should not blind us to what is going on. And it should not stop us from exercising our democratic responsibility to speak out and say what we see. END OF QUOTE

What this means is that with President Obama pursuing the policies of George Bush, if the NPP had won the elections, we would be getting ready to be an occupied territory. Kufour had already built the foundations without alerting anybody. That is how evil the guy is. Maybe, just for the benefit of the doubt, President Kufour did some good things for Ghanaians. But the mathematical value of his attempt to sell our country remaining zero, even if you multiply that by a million counts of good works he did during his term, the answer is still ZERO.

They shall fail. We are not for sale! Kwesi Pratt is right! Atta-Mills is better than Kufour! There is victory for us! Forward Ever! Backwards Never! In the struggles of Africa! There is victory!!!

Cheers!

-- Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro. Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheOdikro