The Majority in Parliament has launched a counter-offensive against the Minority, describing as “reckless” the suggestion that President John Dramani Mahama’s diplomatic engagement with Captain Ibrahim Traoré triggered the recent killing of eight Ghanaian traders in Burkina Faso.
The heated exchange follows the brutal murder of tomato traders by suspected terrorists near the border, an event the Minority has attempted to link to the government’s alleged “glorification” of the Burkinabe military leader.
However, the Chairman of Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee, James Agalga, has dismissed these claims as a dangerous distortion of geopolitical realities.
Rejecting the Minority’s narrative, Mr Agalga argued that the breakdown in security cooperation between Accra and Ouagadougou was an inherited crisis. He pointed specifically to the previous government’s public accusation that Burkina Faso had hired the Wagner Group, a Russian private military outfit, to combat insurgents.
According to Mr Agalga, that singular diplomatic blunder caused a catastrophic rupture in the Accra Initiative, the regional security framework designed to halt the southward drift of terrorism.
“The day the previous government accused Burkina Faso of using the Wagner Group to help it fight terrorism was the day Burkina Faso withdrew from the Accra Initiative. That was when Burkina Faso refused to collaborate with Ghana in terms of intelligence sharing to deal with terrorism,” Mr Agalga stated.
The Majority maintains that rather than inciting violence, President Mahama has been working tirelessly to repair the diplomatic bridges burnt by his predecessors.
Mr Agalga revealed that the appointment of a special envoy to the Sahelian states was a strategic necessity to restore the intelligence-sharing mechanisms that protect Ghanaian lives.
“When President Mahama came into office, he decided that there was a need for us to have a relationship with the Burkinabès, and that is why he appointed a special envoy to continue to liaise with the three Sahel countries in our quest to combat terrorism,” he explained.
The Defence and Interior Committee Chairman expressed deep disappointment in the opposition’s attempt to politicise the tragic death of the traders.
He argued that linking the “glorification” of a foreign head of state to the actions of amorphous terrorist groups was not only unfounded but undermined national security efforts.
“So, I am very disappointed that the minority is saying that the reason why Ghanaians were killed in Burkina Faso was that we are glorifying a head of state, Ibrahim Traoré. That is the most irresponsible thing I have heard,” Mr Agalga fumed.
The debate in Parliament reflects the growing tension over how Ghana should handle its restive northern neighbours.
With the Sahelian Alliance (AES) moving further away from traditional ECOWAS security structures, the Mahama administration’s “direct engagement” policy is under intense scrutiny.
While the Minority views the relationship with Traoré as a liability, the Majority insists that isolation is not an option when the lives of Ghanaian traders and the stability of the northern frontier are at stake.
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Source: www.myjoyonline.com