The Executive Director of Danquah Institute, Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, is asking President John Mills to tell Ghanaians whether or not he would pullout Ghanaian peacekeepers in Cote d\u2019Ivoire should war break out there.
\nThe president on January 7 told journalists that Ghana would be unable to commit troops to support a military intervention in the Ivorian crisis because the nation was overstretched. He also said he did not think a military intervention would secure a solution to the Ivorian stand-off, engendered by the refusal of incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo to step down after polls his opponent, Allasane Ouattara was widely thought to have won.
\nAccording to President Mills, Ghana has 500 troops in Cote d\u2019Ivoire as part of a UN force protecting the UN-backed Alansane Ouatarra.
\nPresident Mills\u2019 statement attracted criticisms from especially members of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) who said he had sought to undermine the Economic Community of African States (ECOWAS) \u2013 which unanimously decided to opt for a military intervention should mediation fail in resolving the impasse.
\nOn Metro TV\u2019s Good Morning Ghana programme Tuesday, Gabby Otchere Darko who is also a staunch member of the NPP was commenting on contents of a letter published by the two state dailies of Daily Graphic and The Ghanaian Times asserting that the President\u2019s position has been vindicated.
\nAccording to the letter, a report sent by The Head Of Ghana\u2019s Permanent Mission to The United Nations for the attention of the Minister of Foreign Affairs indicates that the Africa Group of Ambassadors at the UN has described the military option to the crisis in Cote d’Ivoire as a \u2018no option\u2019.
\nBut Gabby says he finds it \u201cextremely doubtful\u201d that what is stated in the letter is the position of the African Group within the UN Security Council. He said information available to him indicates that at least the stance as portrayed in the purported letter is not the position of Nigeria and that the letter \u201cappears to be a very desperate propaganda work to me and I think it will end up even digging deeper the trench that already Ghana is in, in terms of its isolated position on the collective position of ECOWAS.\u201d
\nMr Otchere Darko further explained that whatever position taken by the African Group of Ambassadors represents the exact position of their countries, therefore he wondered why President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria who is also chairman of the ECOWAS said to President Raila Odinga of Kenya on Sunday that \u201cWe [ECOWAS] have not changed the position we took during our last summit\u201d while his country\u2019s representative at the AU supports a \u2018no military option\u2019 as reported by the said letter.
\nFor Gabby, ECOWAS has always been consistent in its position, again quoting President Jonathan as saying \u201cthe use of force will depend on the outcome of a series of meetings to be held with stakeholders of Cote d\u2019Ivoire.
\n\u201cThat is why I think the President\u2019s unsolicited view on the use of troops was very unfortunate, undiplomatic and actually undermining the collective position of West Africa,\u201d he said.
\nHe added: \u201cI think this letter that has been put on the front page of the Graphic and the Times would end up causing Ghana more embarrassment than actually vindicating the President.\u201d
\nAccording to Gabby, \u201cthere are about 26 elections in Africa this year alone and among this 19 is for a change of government\u201d, therefore, \u201cit is important that a clear message is sent across [using the Ivory Coast situation].\u201d
\n\u201cI want the President to answer one question, respectfully, if you don\u2019t mind: already he says we have 500 troops in Cote d\u2019Ivoire \u2026 now are we saying that if war were to break in Cote d\u2019Ivoire we will pull those troops out?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Executive Director of Danquah Institute, Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, is asking President John Mills to tell Ghanaians whether or not he would pullout Ghanaian peacekeepers in Cote d\u2019Ivoire should war break out there. The president on January 7 told journalists that Ghana would be unable to commit troops to support a military intervention in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n