The former President, Mr Jerry John Rawlings, yesterday, bounced out of self-imposed verbal hibernation and hit the boom road when he predicted that President John Agyekum Kufuor would soon run away from the country.

Mr Rawlings said, he sometimes, watches President Kufuor with pity because a time would come soon, when the President would run away from Ghana. He made the comments when he addressed the leadership, members and supporters of the NDC numbering about 140 at his office at Ridge in Accra, for two hours.

The meeting was to thank the people for their love and support, and also for the rousing welcome they gave him, at the airport upon his return from Libya last Saturday, March 25, 2006. As he spoke the people responded with cheers and sang King David?s ?Ayefo Nokye, Nokyen nfo, Kufuor Sheege,? as Mrs. Rawlings and others danced, waving white pieces of calico.

Mr Rawlings used the occasion to formally, reject the restoration of protocol and courtesies recently restored to him, in an announcement by the Foreign Affairs Minister, Nana Akufo-Addo, saying it is God who makes kings. According to the former President, the protocol and courtesies given to him by the Kufuor Administration, meant nothing to him saying, even when he was a president, he used to clean gutters as a show of humility. The former president, who used the occasion to brief his party members about his recent trip to Libya, where he met the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar Gadhafi. He revealed that, he told Col Gadhafi about all that was happening in the country, saying that Col. Gadhafi knew that he, Rawlings does not tell lies, but that it is Kufuor who is a liar.

Briefing them further he stressed that he reminded Gadhafi that most coup makers in Africa, retired as Generals in the army, but he, Rawlings, did not. To buttress this point he cited Mobutu Seseko of Zaire, Samuel Kayon Doe of Liberia and what he described as ?Kufuor?s own friend? President Eyadema of Togo, who he claimed promoted themselves to the rank of General. He told his supporters that he informed Ghadafi that he, Rawlings, does not fancy those pips on military uniforms saying ?I made a coup as a Flight Leiutenant, and retired as Flight Lieutenant.?