Mr president, have mercy on ghana
I wished it had not come from the NPP; or that Mustapha Hamid was a politically neutral Muslim! Of course, in another country, one’s political orientation will not matter in a discourse as life-threatening as being forced in bed with terrorists, but we are in Ghana where the only way to commit a crime and go scot-free is to let it be known which political coat you are wearing.
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Predictably, therefore, discussions on the President’s granting asylum in Ghana to two Yemeni known terrorists took on a new turn the moment the NPP issued its statement.
Fortunately, other Muslims who are non-NPP Ghanaians have spoken and their analyses and warnings have been no different from NPP’s or Mustapha Hamid’s.
This article is not about whether the NPP is wrong or right - though the question is begging to be asked: Is it true or not that our own law stands against admitting a terrorist into Ghana? In black and white, the Anti-terrorism act 2008, (act 762), section 35 (1) states that “The Director of Immigration or an officer authorised by the Director shall not grant an endorsement or authority to permit a person to enter this country if there is reasonable ground to suspect that the person is, will, or has been involved in the commission of a terrorist act.”
I doubt that anybody is interested in impeaching the President, but the law quoted above admits of no other interpretation than that the President has breached it. All we need to do is check on the background of the two. Is what has been written about them on the internet false? Were they ever involved with Osama Bin Laden? Do they share his ideology?
There is no doubt that either the President or our dear Foreign Minister never consulted with knowledgeable Muslims such as the ones who have spoken on the issue.
According to them, the ideology that feeds the extremists’ fundamentalism dictates that its adherents should declare war on anything or any state that aligns itself with the United States of America.
That explains why Kenya and peace-loving Tanzania became targets of terrorist bombings that killed, at least, 80 people in 1998. Eight of them were Americans. the rest – 72 of them - were all africans, many of them people who happened to be walking around. Their bodies were dismembered! It’s the same ideology that explains why in Nigeria, the Boko Haram group does not exempt even mosques and known Muslims in their zeal to kill and destroy.
These terrorists are people who will radicalise unsuspecting youth against their own country or sections of the country, for no other reason than that those targets are “Haram”. Certainly, this cannot be the world our President wants for Ghana.
Why did America not fly the two to Yemen? The official answer is that that country is unstable now. Question: Does somebody think that Ghana is stable - with workers’ strikes and threats of more strikes resulting from increases in utility tariffs and general price hikes; with Ghanaians seething with anger against a three-year dumsor that has left many industrialists permanently bedazzled, and workers thrown out of jobs? Is this life in a stable country?
And why would the US itself not permit the two, and others like them, to settle in America? Because in America, the voice of the people, through Congress, says “No!” Why?
Because Americans know that the two are no “low-level operatives”, as Ghana’s Foreign Minister has been told and has believed. How come that in Ghana, the people were left out of this decision making? If Parliament can be compelled to approve bills on a certificate of urgency, why not on this life-and-death issue?
The President of Ghana says that Ghanaian security did a background check on the two. Does anybody need any check beyond what these two are known to have done or been involved with Osama Bin Laden in the past? Remember the wisdom from Ghana: “As long as the tsetsefly lives, its head will not be empty of blood.”
I am a typical Ghanaian. I fear blood and I am unable to shrug off the foreboding that this one Presidential act is the death knell of Ghana’s proverbial peace. Like Macbeth who “murdered sleep,” I think this single act has murdered Ghana’s peace – and I fear, forever.
This is because it doesn’t take much to trigger the anger of these extremists. And — take note — with them, it is not what Ghana’s Chief Imam will say; it is not what the world’s most respected Muslim says. Their anger is on anything their ideology terms “haram”. Their war is on anything that seems to align with or favour “American interest.”
I know that our President is determined not to change his mind but I am pleading with him on behalf of the 25-plus million people of one of the most peaceful countries in the world.
The real problem – and, for me, the most dangerous for Ghana, however - is that with effect from John Mahama, any President of Ghana can breach the law and ignore the people, secure in the knowledge that his ruling party is in the majority in Parliament. No-one warned us about this brand of democracy!