Conduct Post mortem of Rawlings' administration - Erskine

General Emmanuel Erskine, First United Nations Commander of UNIFIL on Thursday urged academicians and researchers to examine exhaustively, how the Former President Jerry John Rawlings' administration was able to survive for almost two decades whilst previous governments lasted just briefly.

He said: "The experience of his regime both positively and negatively are extremely useful in the search and effort to sustain democratic governance and constitutionality in the West African sub-region."

Gen. Esrkine said this at the opening of a three-day international conference under the theme, "The Military question in West Africa: Options for Constitutional and Democratic Control" in Accra on Thursday.

The Conference is being organised by Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA) and is the culmination of a two-year research project funded by the Ford Foundation on the pertinent issue of the role of the military in West African politics.

Gen. Erskine said there is the need to study the security and intelligence mechanism instituted by the former President, which can be replicated for the development and protection of democracy.

He said other experiences that society must tap from ex-President Rawlings and others include, the state of mind when considering and planning coups, why some coups succeeds while others failed, and why state machinery and military intelligence/command failed to foil the attempted or succeeded ones.

Gen. Erskine who is also the Patron of FOSDA said the information gathered would help to prepare and put in place permanent structures to ensure that the military does not interrupt political governance.

He stated "we should make the maximum use of these persons who were involved, either directly or indirectly to help us organise and prepare for any eventualities."

He said, "there is the need to equip civil society on how to combat coup makers should it occur especially within the first 24 hours of its announcement."

He said good governance through the exercise of acceptable democratic ideals, respect for constitution by incumbent governments and non-politicisation of the military would also serve as "principal ingredients that will help eliminate military adventurism".

The UN Commander cautioned Governments to ensure that condition of living and service of security personnel as well as their general welfare are given appropriate attention to generate high moral.

Mrs Gertrude Zakariah-Ali, Director of Research of the National Commission for Civic Education chaired the function.