JJ CALLS NKRUMAHISTS CRIMINALS

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has described some of the politicians claiming to pursue the ideals of Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, as criminals.

He again took a swipe at the late President John Evans Atta Mills whom he (Rawlings) brought into political limelight, tagging him as ‘shallow’ and ‘a disappointment.’

“Can you believe that those of us, we don’t even regard ourselves as Nkrumahists? Those who call themselves Nkrumahists are the worst offenders, criminals. From Mills till now, not even one single policy resembles anything Nkrumah stood for or believed in,” he charged.

The former president made the startling comments when he addressed a delegation from the Association of Cuban Trained Ghanaian Professionals at his Ridge residence in Accra on Tuesday - the eve of Africa Union (AU) Day.

Mr Rawlings, who founded the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) - a party having majority of its members claiming to be apostles of Dr Kwame Nkrumah - indicted his own party’s leadership, saying “they have done nothing to improve the living standards of Ghanaians.”

He stated that those claiming to be living the ideals of the visionary Dr Kwame Nkrumah were doing the opposite of what he stood for, in spite of the fact that Ghana had good policies to become prosperous.

Mr Rawlings, a coupist-turned-democrat, said the current crop of leaders have rather worsened the plight of the people.

“We are worst today than we were before. You know we did our bit from the 80s. In 1979, we had no choice; people were angry and it was a time of rage. We had to hand over but then we had to come back again in ‘81 or ‘82. We could have stayed on for another eight or 16 years just to work to consolidate situations very well and properly.

“And I made a suggestion to my colleagues that considering that people were becoming saturated with us or with me, let me let Justice Annan take over and I can be his number 2 or step aside. He can serve four years or eight years then I could come back; and that would be 16 years of consolidation because what we had noticed was that these characters would destroy anything and everything so let’s not allow it,” Mr Jerry John Rawlings (fondly known as Papa J) recounted.

The former military junta leader continued, “Some of my comrades said no and that it’s never been done before. Is that not what Putin did recently? We would have been the first to do it here,” adding, “That would have helped to consolidate because most often we make reference to institutions but the institutions rely on the human factor; and if those human entities are not bold enough to defy that which is wrong, that institution will be weak; am I lying?”

He again turned the heat on the late President Mills, saying, “We did everything possible to lift up this country and that’s why people kept wishing we were back. But as soon as we handed over, the guy turned the wheels 180 degrees.

“Some of the most outrageous things were happening. I remember trying to tell Mills and giving him details about some of the issues but it surprised me though that for a brilliant man like him, he couldn’t see. He was so shallow.”

Mr Rawlings, who has never hidden his disdain for Prof Mills even in the latter’s death, said, “Crime perpetuates itself if you don’t deal with it; and how Mills couldn’t see through this is something I couldn’t understand.

“It was so bad that even those who had been misused to jail innocent people - some in Ghana, some in Ivory Coast - were on standby to escape and this happened as we were approaching the 2008 elections. But our brother Mils had been so badly persuaded. As he put it to me, he had been advised to let things be and the money would flow. Mills was disappointing. Some of your so-called intellectual creatures are dumb.”