“Anytime he [Rawlings] gets the opportunity, he knocks Atta Mills, he knocks Kufuor, he knocks Mahama. The only person he is not hitting on in this current administration is the current President”.
This is crystal clear, self-explanatory lines from the former aide to the former first family the Rawlingses, Ambassador Victor Smith who is accusing his former boss of double standards and being in bed with the current President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who used to be his ‘archenemy’ in the politics of Ghana.
According to Mr Smith the only reason that can be ascribed to this sudden ‘coziness’ between the former public ‘enemies’; the former first family and the current President is one- “he [Rawlings] is in bed with him [Akufo-Addo].”, Mr Victor Smith concluded.
Speaking to GhanaWeb’s Kwabena Kyenkyenhene Boateng on ’21 Minutes with KKB’, Mr Smith said the current relationship between the two powerful men hurts a lot of NDC functionaries and cadres who would have had to run out of this country Ghana, if they had formed a similar ‘warm relationship’ (as Rawlings now has) with then mere MP Nana Akufo-Addo under the Rawlings era in the fourth Republic.
Victor Smith said such people, if they dared befriend Akufo-Addo, would have had to run away from this country from Rawlings.
“It is painful for some of us because if anybody else has done that [befriend Akufo-Addo] under JJ Rawlings reign, oooh my God, you wouldn’t even be in the country. You will run out of the country”, Mr Victor Smith said.
But it needs pointing out by MYNEWSGH.com, that Mr Smith is not the only one who has levelled this accusation against the former President. In fact, the late Editor of the Al-Hajj newspaper Alhaji Bature Iddrisu had been much more forceful about it.
He had said Nana Konadu Agyeman (beloved Mrs Rawlings) is the most corrupt woman to have walked under the Ghanaian sky, for which reason her husband Mr Rawlings has to ingratiate himself lowly to President Akufo-Addo to protect her from going to Prison over “Ghana National Trading Company (GNTC) properties, Cocoa factories and the Nsawam Cannery".
Alhaji Bature who was a regular Tuesday panelist on Adom T.V hardly spoke about corruption in Ghana without the name of the Rawlingses.
With regards to that, Mr Victor Smith says “No one is above the law”. Mr. Smith had in the past called on the leadership of the NDC to call Rawlings to order, or pay for it dearly in the 2020 general elections.
According to him if they failed to stop Rawlings from further attacks, it could have dire repercussions on the NDC’s chances in the upcoming elections as Rawlings’ comments were deliberately schemed to make things hard for the opposition NDC in order to favour Akufo-Addo.
“When I say we should deal with him, I mean they [NDC leadership] have to stop him [Rawlings] from doing what he is doing….his remarks have been creating problems within our party. If the party leadership does not rectify it now for the progress of the party, then there is a possibility that we may not win 2020 election,” he had noted three weeks ago, urging the NDC leadership to be “bold” and take a decision against the party’s founder.