It is on record that the three governments headed by Former President J. J. Rawlings killed more people in Ghana than all the other governments combined in that endeavour. Former President Rawlings headed the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) government in 1979 and within three months had executed his predecessor military rulers and superiors. In that brief period in government, he supervised the killings of many people. He again came back on 31st December 1981 as the Head of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and under his watch and probably his instruction had three Accra High Court Judges and a retired Army Major killed in cold blood on 30th June 1982. During PNDC government, many innocent Ghanaians disappeared into the thin air and have since neither been found nor accounted for. Having turned over his coat, he formed and headed the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and dubiously or genuinely won two four-year terms as a civilian President.
This brief history about Rawlings’ ascendency to Ghana’s presidency is given to help with the point I am going to drive home shortly. He first came to power in the belief that his predecessor-Heads of State and military superiors were corrupt, and ruining Ghana hence they deserve to die. He killed General A. A. Afrifa, General I. K. Acheampong and Lt. General Akufo; all three were former Heads of State. He killed military Superiors Utuka, Kotei, Yaw Boakye, Amedome etc.
Air Vice Marshall Yaw Boakye was killed by firing squad at Teshie Military Range for genuinely taking a bank loan of then 50,000 Cedis which he was in the process of paying off. His accusation by Rawlings, who claimed to be buying “Yoko gari” on credit to feed himself and family, was that, he had used his position to acquire that loan. Air Vice Marshall Yaw Boakye was killed for taking a genuine loan but not for stealing any public money.
Now, we do see the party (NDC) single-handedly formed by former President Rawlings having her members with the President inclusive STEALING public money in their millions of Ghana New Cedis.
The NDC party and government aided and abetted Alfred Agbesi Woyome to dupe Ghana out of over GHC51.1 million. Did Barton Oduro, Alex Segbefia and Betty Mould-Iddrisu not directly assist Alfred Agbesi Woyome in his outrageous plot to rob Ghana of the mentioned sum of money?
President Mills or Mahama, his government and some NDC party gurus and their agents and assigns nefariously engaged in awarding “create, loot and share” money in the form of judgment debt payments to their friends and foreign or local companies.
From the little said, have President Mahama, his NDC government and party members not stolen more money than was stolen by the executed Heads of States with the Convention People’s Party (CPP) of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, National Liberation Council (NLC) of General Ankrah and General Afrifa, Progress Party (PP) of Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia, Supreme Military Council (SMC1) of General I. K. Acheampong, SMC2 of Lt. General Akufo, People’s National Party (PNP) of Dr Hilla Limman and New Patriotic Party (NPP) of President Kufuor, combined?
Back to Rawlings; he came to power against the backdrop of the members of the military regimes and the PNP government being corrupt and bad managers for Ghana.
Now my question to him is, those governments compared to the current NDC government headed by President Mahama, which are corrupt? Did he not preach “probity, accountability and transparency” to Ghanaians as the cardinal pillars on which his regimes revolved and were the driving force behind his decision to kill the leaders deemed corrupt because they lacked them?
Let me define the philosophical words used by Rawlings as his purpose for staging his coups in Ghana and for the lack of which in some leaders led him to kill them.
Probity is “complete honesty”
Accountability is “a situation in which someone is responsible for things that happen and can give a satisfactory reason for them”
Transparency is “the quality of being done in an open way without secrets”
Now that he is very much aware of his party and its members being way far corrupt for the good of Ghana, what should he normally do? He must advise and chastise them but if they fail to adhere to his admonitions, as it is now the case, what must he do?
Instead of disowning the NDC party, he thinks it is his party so he had better help them stay in power even though they are extremely dodgy and foully corrupt.
His wife, Mrs Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings has seen that the NDC party and its leaders are irredeemably corrupt so she has split from them. Former President Rawlings in spite of all the thieveries characterising the government and the person President Mahama, he still supports the NDC. He shares their aspirations to continue to be in power to continue to plunge Ghana into economic abyss by their corruption, incompetence and cluelessness.
He has his daughter on the NDC ticket as their parliamentary candidate for Korle Klottey Constituency. Will Mr Rawlings vote NDC because of his interests in the party and also having his daughter in the party?
If he does that, then he lacks morality and the ghosts of those he wrongly killed, accusing them of wrongdoings which pale to nothing when compared to the crimes being committed by President Mahama and his NDC government, will haunt him.
He is clearly in a dilemma; voting against NDC on moral grounds because they are far too corrupt or voting on feelings because it is his own party and his daughter is in the party.
Let us all wait and see if he killed all the accused persons wrongly and for absolutely nothing.
As it was in those earlier days of “Rawlings, do something before you die and let the blood flow” so will it be in these latter days of “Rawlings, do show morality by kicking and voting against the NDC before they collapse Ghana”.
PLEASE RAWLINGS, MORALITY BUT NOT FEELINGS.
Rockson Adofo