By Akaneweo Kabiru Abdul
I am deeply struck and frankly disturbed by the flip-flopping, double-tongued, and fundamentally unprincipled posture of our left-leaning government, particularly the incoherent conduct of its Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, on matters relating to coup d’état across the sub-region.
You will recall that when John Dramani Mahama was to be sworn in as President earlier this year, one of his invited guests was Captain Ibrahim Traore, the interim President of Burkina Faso and an undisputed coup leader.
Many of us strongly condemned that decision, not out of spite, but out of principle.
There was absolutely no justification for inviting a military usurper to a democratic swearing-in ceremony.
Ghana is a respected member of ECOWAS, and ECOWAS’ position on Burkina Faso’s unconstitutional change of government has been unambiguous.
To extend such an invitation was not merely diplomatically careless; it amounted to undermining a collective regional stance and, in effect, snitching on the very principles Ghana has historically championed.
As though that controversy was not troubling enough, the President proceeded to appoint Larry Gbevlo-Lartey as a Special Envoy to the Sahel States, states which, by and large, are currently under military rule, including Burkina Faso, Mali, and others.
This appointment raised serious questions about the government’s true posture on unconstitutional governments.
When Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa appeared before Parliament’s vetting committee and was questioned on this obvious contradiction, he did not attempt to clarify or reconcile the inconsistency. Instead, he vehemently defended this conflicted position.
That defence, whether intentional or not, sent a clear signal that the government is either tacitly or overtly comfortable engaging and normalizing coup regimes.
Fast-forward to today, and the contradictions have become even more glaring.
We are now told that Ghana is deploying soldiers to Benin to help secure the government following an attempted coup.
One is compelled to ask: what kind of unprincipled foreign policy is this?
On one hand, this government fraternizes with, legitimizes, and appoints envoys to coup-led regimes because it suddenly finds coups tolerable, or even strategic.
On the other hand, when another country faces a similar threat and seeks stability, Ghana rushes to deploy troops to prevent what it elsewhere appears to condone.
This is not diplomacy anchored in values; it is diplomacy without a moral compass.
You cannot applaud coups by proxy, normalize military takeovers through engagement, and then turn around to militarily oppose the same phenomenon when it threatens a different government.
Such selective morality erodes Ghana’s credibility, weakens ECOWAS’ collective resolve, and exposes our foreign policy as opportunistic rather than principled.
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is fast gaining a reputation as a busybody Foreign Affairs Minister, hyperactive, loud, and combative, yet glaringly lacking in strategic direction and ideological consistency.
Foreign policy is not activism; it is not posturing. It requires coherence, restraint, and an unwavering commitment to clearly defined principles.
On the critical issue of coups d’état in West Africa, this government, led diplomatically by Ablakwa, has failed that test rather spectacularly.
