Report by Ben LARYEA
The Ghana Union Movement (GM) a political party has cautioned President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo to distance himself from a planned use of force to send troops to Niger under the orders of ECOWAS to restore the elected civilian President Mohammed Bazoum following the recent coup d’etat in the country.
According to GUM, any military and security action will lead to huge socio-economic and security challenges already facing the country and have therefore urged ECOWAS to use diplomatic talks and dialogue to solve the impasse.
“Ghana Union Movement will embark on a nationwide demonstration if government decides to support the planned decision of sending troops to Niger”, the party said, saying government must factor the innocent lives that will be lost.
Speaking at a news conference in Accra, the Founder of GUM, Rev. Christian Kwabena Andrews said the ECOWAS block should reflect on the repercussions and the spillover of the said military action and its effect on the sub-region thus Ghana is not ready to fight a neighbouring country.
ECOWAS was formed on the 28th May, 1975 and has a mother organization which was the Organization of African Unity “OAU”, established in 1963 and thereafter formed the African Union “AU” on the 9th July, 2002 in Durban South – Africa which both the ECOWAS and AU share similar or same vision geared towards a peaceful and united Africa.
Throwing more light on coups in the West Africa sub-region, Rev. Christian Kwabena Andrews said from the year 2017 there have been close to 16 attempted and successful coups in Africa and mentioned Chad, Mali, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso, and Niger thus dialogue must be exhibited and not the use of military force to restore democratic elected government.
Recalling coups that took place in Ghana, he said military leaders such as Joseph Ankrah, Akwasi Afrifa, Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, Fred Akuffo, and Jerry John Rawlings engaged in coups but ECOWAS and African Union did not intervene to fight the coup makers.
He said the people of Niger have not called upon the government to save them nor are they fighting. there are security issues at the northern part of Ghana that need more troops for peace as well as the need to protect Ghana’s borders against illegal immigrants and presumed terrorists.
“Nigeria equally has issues of Buko-haram and others and these home challenges need government troops than to send them to Niger to die and kill innocent inhabitants”, he said.
“If ECOWAS has any better decision to take, they must meet on how to eradicate corruption and the excruciating hardships their poor and greedy leaderships have brought unto the citizenry especially the youth in the continent so that they cannot be enticed and used for illegal activities like Coup D’etat”, he concluded.
