There was tension on the tarmac of the Kotoka International Airport last Saturday night August 16, when the two strong men who led the 112 days Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) regime from June 4, 1979 to September 24, 1979, were in a ‘near-meet’ as they landed at Accra’s Kotoka Airport at 0900 hours after flying in from London on a British Airway Flight.
Major Kojo Boakye-Djan (rtd) had arrived home from the first time since leaving the shores of his homeland in 1981, for Britain, where he has lived since the AFRC regime, handed over power to the Limann Government in 1979. On the same British airways flight, was Ft. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings (rtd), who had also returned home after a one-week visit to Britain, where his children reside.
As the plane landed, both gentlemen, who parted ways over the ‘second-coming’ of Jerry Rawlings in December 1981, were whisked away by the protocol officials. Daily Guide scouts who lurked in the vicinity of the airport tarmac, saw the former president leave his first-class seat on the BA flight, walked down the gangway to say a hasty hello to everyone in sight, and entered the state protocol car, and was swiftly driven from the tarmac to his home.
Major Boakye Djan, on his part came down from his executive class seat, less hastily, to be welcomed by his old-time friend, Mr. Kweku Baako, editor-in-chief of the Crusading Guide, and was also driven off to Accra. When Daily Guide contacted Mr. Baako on Sunday to comment on the co-incidental arrival of the two strong men who briefly led the 1979 military Uprising for a traumatic three months, and have since not spoken to each other, on the same day and on the same flight, he had this to say: “It was an interesting encounter.
When Rawlings climbed down the gangway, he said hello to everyone. He even said hello to me, and I also said hello. But, I bet, he did not recognise me, instantly for after moving a few steps away, he turned round and looked at me again with surprise in his eyes. I bet he had then realised he had just greeted his bitterest critic.”
Kweku related that Major Boakye Djan on his part said he was unaware that his old friend was sitting right in front of him. He had this to say, “Oh, I wish I had seen him during the flight. We would have shaken hands, and I would have had the chance to tell him, ‘I told you so”.
Meanwhile, Daily Guide has learnt from protocol and security sources that Mr. Victor Smith, special aide to the former president, has vehemently protested privately to security details and to at least one newspaper Editor about the presence of Mr. Kweku Baako, who was on hand to pick up Major Boakye-Djan (rtd), from the airport. Details of Major Boakye-Djan’s visit has not been made clear.
