By Otchere Darko

Reference: “The former president said President Mahama should pick men and women of integrity to fill various positions in his government.

“Speaking at the 31st anniversary celebration of the 31st December Revolution in Accra on Monday, Mr Rawlings, who is also the founder of the NDC, said with those supposed leeches, parasites, thieves and liars parading the corridors of power, he was not sure the Mahama government would succeed.” [By Courtesy of Ghanaweb General News of Friday, 4 January 2013 Captioned: “Sack Liars, Thieves: JJ Tells Mahama”; Source: Daily Guide]

I was previously not a fan of Rawlings because of the bad things he did in the past, especially during the AFRC and PNDC eras. However, as years went by and I gathered more information about him, my attitude towards him became more balanced. I realised that he has an [extremely] good side, just as he has an [extremely] bad side. The two sides of him, in the end, balance out and make him a normal human being.

Among his good side, is the fact that he sticks to what he believes in, and faces the consequences of his firm stand with his readiness to allow himself to be ‘stoned’ for his beliefs. During the eight years of former President Kufuor’s administration, former President Rawlings consistently attacked that administration that replaced him, wherever and whenever he (Rawlings) believed the Kufuor Administration was wrong. As a result of those constant attacks on Mr Kufuor and the NPP, he (Rawlings) became NPP’s number one ‘enemy’.

Former President Rawlings did not stop opening his eyes and criticising the next government in power, when Mr Kufuor’s NPP Administration ended and ex-President Mills’ administration took over. JJ Rawlings turned his attacks on the NDC Administration of Mills by openly, constantly and vehemently criticising it, despite being the founder of that party. This was not common in Africa, where the ‘big men’ behind ruling parties, including former Presidents and former Prime Ministers, allow themselves to be corrupted financially, morally and psychologically; and, accordingly, become ‘stooges’. Rawlings’ constant criticism of the man who was once his vice earned him the description of a “traitor”, which was given to him by his own NDC party members. He was even accused by members of his own party for having killed ex-President Mills with his (Rawlings’) constant criticisms. Any man, and for that matter any politician would have recoiled into his ‘shell’ and kept quiet from that very moment.

No, Mr Rawlings did not keep quiet. He was not afraid of insults. Thus, he stuck to his personal beliefs. Before and throughout the last elections, JJ Rawlings continued to criticise his party; and demanded that the caretaker administration of Mr Mahama should deal with all the “babies with biting teeth”, the “greedy bastards”, and the “old evil dwarfs” in the NDC Administration.

However, soon after NDC was declared winner of the 2012 elections, fresh ‘power’ from election victory gave four or five ‘big men’ in the NDC the ‘strength’ to come out openly to give Mr Rawlings an ultimatum to either stop criticising the new Mahama Administration, or criticise it and risk having his past hidden [bad] “secrets” revealed to the Ghanaian public. Despite this ultimatum, JJ Rawlings has dared to criticise the NDC Administration again. What a man of impeccable principles!

Let the NDC gurus who have given JJ Rawlings the ultimatum tell Ghanaians what [bad] “secrets” this ‘unquenchable’ “man of principles” has hidden from Ghanaians for years. If they cannot tell Ghanaians what they (“the secrets”) are, then let them shut up and leave Mr Rawlings to pursue the principles he believes in, because Ghana needs ‘men of principles’ more than “babies with biting teeth” or “greedy bastards” or “old evil dwarfs” whose unpatriotic activities threaten the future of our children and grand-children.

Source: Otchere Darko; (My Political Views {Domestic}).