And Now, It IsThe Turn Of Ghanaians To Demand Our “Pound Of Flesh” From JJ Rawlings

By Otchere Darko

I have written twice to back the inalienable right of Mrs Konadu Agyeman Rawlings to challenge His Excellency, President Atta-Mills, for the chance to lead NDC into the 2012 parliamentary and presidential elections. As a person who suffered persecution during Rawlings’ barbaric three months rule in 1979, I should be the last person to campaign for his wife, Konadu Agyemang Rawlings. It certainly sounds silly on my part to write twice to back the democratic rights of a wife whose husband abused the human rights of others. My backing of the former First Lady, however, is based purely and principally on democratic principles; and on law. My defence of her is also strategic.

As a Ghanaian who is not disqualified from becoming president of Ghana, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings has a right to seek election to become her party’s flagbearer. Since the NDC constitution, also, does not prohibit its members from challenging a sitting President who is elected on the ticket of that party, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings has also not broken any party rule. From both national and party constitutional points of view, therefore, the former First Lady has a legitimate right to challenge a president, who in her eyes, is not performing well. And, we all acknowledge that Professor Mills is unarguably the worst president Ghana has ever had. The numerous court failures of the government of this so-called “Law Professor” speak volumes about his efficacy and his presidency.

*I am in no way insinuating that the Kufuor administration was so corrupt that a court cases against any of its members should succeed. Rather, I am saying that the government of a “Law Professor” should not send to court a case that has no chance of succeeding. A good prosecuting lawyer sends to court a case that he can win; and not one he cannot win. A “Law Professor” whose government registers nearly one hundred percent court failures within two years of his administration is a “Professor of Failure” who does not deserve a second term in office in any capacity and, certainly, not as President of Ghana. *The President’s “Better Ghana Agenda”, of which he cannot claim full ownership, is as empty a slogan as it sounds; and possesses no developmental potentiality or propensity. *His STX housing project is a testimony that President Mills is controlled by the people around him. Even a JSS student would know that, by hiding behind and deploying a Ghanaian “business escort” to influence the “chop-chop” members among Mills’ NDC government, South Korea was not “playing straight” with Ghana and its government; and could, therefore, not be trusted to deliver on the STX deal. *Mills does not use the name of God only to draw votes from Ghanaians who believe in God. He also, and indeed, believes that “manna” will fall from the heavens to save Ghana and his government, even if he does not plan and work hard enough for Ghana’s development. *While his abuse of office and corrupt nature cannot be proved with solid evidence, his flirtation with China, which flirtation has given that country a disproportionate economic advantage over all other foreign countries, makes it difficult for it be believed that the Mills government is not getting any secret “kick-backs” from China for the preferential treatment given to that country by the current NDC administration.

If Mills is “a failure, and has failed so miserably in his first term of office, then it is proper that some NDC members should feel that he should be changed before the 2012 elections, in order to put their party in a better position to retain power? If I were a member of the NDC party, I would be among this group of members. This is what party members who have their party at heart do. Mrs Rawlings, therefore, deserves commendation from her party, not condemnation, in my opinion, for providing them with an “alternative” that may be able, [just may be able], to retain power for the NDC in 2012. Her determination and her persistence have paid her good dividend. She now has got the chance to put her case to her party congress in mid July; and possibly to all Ghanaians next year. We call this “democracy”!

*Now that Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings has stood her ground and got her “pound of flesh”, cut from the bosom of Professor Mills, what stops us, Ghanaians, from demanding from Rawlings our “pound of flesh” which he has long owed us? Konadu Agyemang Rawlings has shown that only fools sit down and watch others walk over their rights. Are Ghanaians fools?

*Rawlings has killed all former coup makers, including those who had even handed over to new administrations and those who were in the process of returning the country to civilian rule. The children and other family members of those former coup makers he killed are still grieving. And, yet, they cannot seek redress for the injustices done to them. *Rawlings supervised a system of lawlessness that led to the commission of various crimes against humanity and the infliction of painful brutalities to several Ghanaians, including the abduction and killing of three High Court Judges and one Army Officer, whose children and other relatives are still mourning to this day. *Rawlings supervised two regimes that whipped and molested women and old people on the grounds that they were corrupt, or that they indulged in “kalabule”; and yet it was during the period of administration of this same Rawlings’ NDC(1) that the “M&J’s bribery payments” were made to key members of his government. *Rawlings accused rich people who used pipe-borne water to flush their toilets, by declaring that they were wasting water while poor people could not get water to drink; and yet this same demagogue has built a mansion at East Legon and left this mansion to lie fallow, while he and his wife are calling on poor Ghanaian tax-payers to provide them with another house in Accra. What could be more wasteful and hypocritical?

Why should the entire Ghanaian population act like fools, while the Rawlingses toy with us? Why should Rawlings be able to call for the prosecution of corrupt people in Kufuor’s NPP administration, while Ghanaians cannot call for the prosecution of the murderers and criminals in his AFRC and PNDC administration? Why should Rawlings protect himself with Indemnity Clauses, while he persistently calls for the prosecution of others? Why should Rawlingses fear prosecution, if he claims to have acted rightly before the law in the past? Does a man who has committed no crime fear a policeman? Why should there be two different laws in Ghana for two groups of people; one for Rawlings and the other for the rest of Ghanaians? Why should Rawlings fool Ghanaians by claiming that the Indemnity Clauses are there to protect all coup makers, when he knows that he, Rawlings, has killed all coup makers who made coups in Ghana before his proxy coup of June 4th 1979? Why should Ghanaians allow JJ Rawlings to feel that he is the only intelligent person in Ghana? Why should anyone feel surprised that Rawlings can go to Kumasi and publicly state that he “made a mistake by not identifying intelligent, brilliant and smart people to take over the reins of power from his administration”? [General News of Saturday, 4 June 2011, captioned “Rawlings: the will of God will be done in Sunyani”; Source: citifmonline]. *Of course, JJ Rawlings knows that he is dealing with fools and cowards. That is why he has backed his wife to demand her rights while he, JJ Rawlings, has denied hundreds of Ghanaians their rights to seek justice for the wrongs committed against them during his two barbaric regimes. And that, also, is why he continues to call for the prosecution of Kufuor and members of the NPP government, while he and his supporters continue to maintain that the Indemnity Clauses must be retained.

*We must now let Rawlings know that he is not wiser than all Ghanaians. We must now remove the Indemnity Clauses and allow him to account for his crimes against humanity.

Source: Otchere Darko; [This writer, {who is not the same as Gabby Otchere-Darko}, is a centrist, semi-liberalist, pragmatist, and an advocate for “inter-ethnic cooperation and unity”. He is an anti-corruption campaigner and a community-based development protagonist. He opposes the negative, corrupt, and domineering politics of NDC and NPP and actively campaigns for the development and strengthening of “third parties”. He is against “a two-party only” system of democracy {in Ghana}....... which, in practice, is what we have today].