Accept AFRICOM Now - Rawlings Tells Africa Leaders

A leading youth activist of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Abednego Orstin Rawlings, says the time has come for Africans to embrace the African Military High Command (AFRICOM),citing the NATO and the French attack on Ivory Coast and Libya

He has therefore asked the American President, Barrack Hussein Obama, not to hesitate to use his maiden visit to Ghana to help push forward the agenda of establishing AFRICOM on the continent with its headquarters in Accra, Ghana, because former U.S. President George Walker Bush and his Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, announced the creation of AFRICOM in February 2006, having been awakened to the strategic importance of Africa.

Mr Rawlings stated that it looks like the current United States President Barrack Hussein Obama is disappointing Africa from achieving her dreams and goals. Instead of Africa, it was fully established in Stuttgart, Germany, with General William E. 'Kip' Ward as its first Commander.

He fumed and inquired, 'Why not Africa, but Europe? Europe is already protected but Africa is not. All the terrorism acts were and are planned here because of insecurity in Africa continent.'

Speaking to reporters in an interview yesterday, Mr Orstin said the establishment of AFRICOM on the continent would save Africans from needless and warranted conflicts. He further argued that, the move would help fulfil Ghana's first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah's dream of using single currency among all the five regions in Africa continent with highly united and strong Africa.

AFRICOM, in concert with other U.S. government agencies and international partners, conducts military to military sponsored activities and other military operations as directed to promote a stable and secure African environment in support of U.S. foreign policy and Africa interest.

Mr Rawlings, pointed out that the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) has, since its creation in October 2007, made significant strides by helping its African partners, through exercises like 'Africa Endeavour' and 'Natural Fire', to develop security capacity and enhanced interoperability, why not station in Africa?

'American governments are always interested in giving monetary assistance to Africans but I think the only way to liberate Africans is to establish AFRICOM,' he pointed out and added, 'that alone would bring to reality the dream of Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

The NDC lad added that, since Americans believed in justice, equality, fairness, and transparency, it had become important for them to establish AFRICOM to propagate these ideals to make Africa more stable and prosperous. 'Mr Obama should make AFRICOM one of his best legacies before leaving office in January 20, 2017,' he charged.

He argued that, the AFRICOM was a vision of Dr Nkrumah and described those against the move as anti-Nkrumah.

He disagreed with the views that suggested that the U.S. government would use AFRICOM to attack her enemies, saying 'it's never true.'

'United States is still adopting Africans to the military and with the highest disciplines the entire world is calm and enjoying peace and security. It is because those people have not taken their time to go into the merits and demerits of the establishment of AFRICOM and that is why they are opposing it,' he said.