General Nunoo-Mensah at the official launch of the book
Posted
on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Friday,
December 12, 2014
Brigadier-General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah is predicting
doom for Ghana if situation in the country continue to remain the same.
If we do not take care we will live to regret. We
are living in dangerous times! I am getting old so I don’t want any coup d’
etat. We have to protect our democracy because we’re not stable yet,” he
warned.
The retired army officer was speaking at the launch
of a book titled: ‘JJ Rawlings and Democratic Transition in Ghana’ authored by
Prof. Kwaku Danso-Boafo, a former Minister of Health and Ghana’s immediate past
High commissioner to the United Kingdom.
Published by Ghana Universities Press, the book
which traces former President Rawlings’ political journey has 384 pages with 15
chapters, 1062 endnotes and 250 bibliographical entries.
It was President John Mahama who was scheduled to
launch the book but when the MC, Fritz Barffuor, MP for Ablekuma South
announced that neither the President nor his representative could not make it,
the mantle fell on the controversial old soldier to do the official launching
where the first copy was bought for GH¢2,000.
“People are still living in abject poverty after 57
years (of independence) so we need to be very careful,” General Nunoo-Mensah
said, adding “we haven’t learnt much from history.”
He said the June 4, 1979 uprising masterminded by
junior ranked military personnel to topple the SMC2 government “was a terrible
thing” saying “we don’t want that to happen again.”
“We have lessons to learn otherwise history will
repeat itself.”
Dr. Nicholas Amponsah of the University of Ghana
Political Science Department who did the review said “there is no doubt that if
we are really serious about moving forward as a nation, then we need to take a
critical look at this book.”
He said the former President was the first leader on
the African continent to make his people feel what he called “a sense of
certainty and security,” adding “he was the first leader to ensure that a
government can have the sense of
security to finish their tenure.”
“These are some of the profound achievements of all
who are objective enough should judge JJ Rawlings,” saying “you understand why
his admirers refer to him as Junior Jesus and his opponents demonize him as
Junior Judas.”
The lecturer said “JJ Rawlings’ work was not just a
coup d’ etat. It was a coup to end all coups,” and added that by the former
President’s efforts, Ghana has enjoyed two decades of relatively sustained democratic
governance.
He said Mr. Rawlings’ abhorrence “to anything that
sounds injustice’ should never be overlooked as well as events that culminated
in the formation of the 4th Republic and easiness with which he
accommodated other leaders.
Dr. Sena Kpeglo, Registrar at Volta University of
Allied Sciences, Ho who chaired the launch said “the book satisfies our
intellectual curiosity,” and would help to develop Ghana’s contemporary
politics.
“It provides an interpretation of the politics of JJ
Rawlings,” she said.
The author, Prof. Danso Boafo said “I wrote this
book because the transition and consolidation of our democracy owes a lot of
gratitude with the person of JJ Rawlings.”
“We have worked on this book consciously. It is not
designed to defame anybody. It is purely academic work,” he said.
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