By William
Yaw Owusu
Tuesday May
29, 2018
Former President
Jerry John Rawlings has shown remorse and apologized profusely for what
political pundits have described as unsavory remarks he made about his
colleague former Ghanaian leaders.
He described the
recent comments he made against the former presidents as ‘inappropriate.’
He called former Presidents
Kufuor and Mahama evil and rogue respectively.
Former President
Jerry John Rawlings appeared to run down his immediate successor, John Agyekum
Kufuor, and his own National Democratic Congress (NDC) member and former
President John Dramani Mahama, in the presence of chiefs and elders from Mepe
in the Volta Region, who had called on him.
They had gone to him
to formally invite him to the final funeral rites of Mamaga Awusi Sreku II,
queen mother of the Mepe Traditional Area.
Moral High Ground
In the course of
discussions with the delegation, Mr Rawlings, who is the founder of the
opposition NDC, in an unprovoked fashion, reportedly described Mr. Kufuor as
‘evil’ and Mr. Mahama as a ‘rogue’ who destroyed the country.
He reportedly said,
“I know with my integrity, when I die, I will go to heaven but when I see these
corrupt leaders, I will ask permission from God and flog them.
“If they don’t leave
heaven for me, I will go and leave the heavens and join Satan in hell, because
I cannot stay in the same place with them.”
The former military
leader claimed Mr. Kufuor sold some state-owned companies to foreigners and
awarded himself with the ‘Grand Order of The Star and Eagle’ of Ghana.
Ewe Soldiers
Mr. Rawlings also
said former President Kufuor, during his tenure, tried to sideline Ewes in the
military, adding that it came to a time when the force was looking for senior
officers and enlisting 40 in every region.
“When it got to the Volta
Region, they tried to substitute the well-known names with their own people,
but when the list got to Burma Camp they did the right thing,” he claimed
further.
Corruption Tag
He turned his attention
on Mr Mahama, describing the former president as a rogue who superintended over
corruption.
Mr. Rawlings noted that
during former President Mahama’s era, he personally negotiated for a project to
be established at Vorlor in the North Tongu area of the Volta Region “but before
I realised, some party executives had shared the land among themselves.”
He said people from
the region had faithfully voted for the NDC on many occasions but they have
nothing to show in terms of infrastructural development.
Public Concerns
However, the office
of Mr. Rawlings appears to have been inundated with concerns from the public
over the harsh comments and subsequently issued a statement yesterday withdrawing
the said comments.
“The office of
former President Jerry John Rawlings wishes to inform the general public that
the former President has taken due note of concerns raised over certain
publications arising out of a meeting he held with a delegation of chiefs and
elders from Mepe in the Volta Region last Tuesday,” Kobina Andoh Amoakwa of the
Communications Directorate of the Office, stated.
“The former
President apologises to former Presidents John Agyekum Kufuor and John Dramani
Mahama for the choice of words. He deems the words as inappropriate and
withdraws them,” according to the statement.
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