Jerry John Rawlings: Ungrateful Miserable Loner!!

Sometimes, one does not know how to hold back his/her emotions when it comes to this character called Jerry John Rawlings.

Sometimes, one tries hard to believe that Rawlings is a fictional character and so must not be taken serious.

Sometimes also, one wants to believe that Rawlings just appears in bad dreams and nightmares and is not a human being.

Facts are facts; and the fact is that Rawlings is neither a fictional character nor an apparition that appears only in bad dreams.

Jerry John Rawlings is a living human being and that is where some of us find it difficult to rein-in our thoughts when he opens his mouth and blurts out his stench and fouls the air.

That Rawlings is an egoistic character with delusions of grandeur and an ego that is larger than life; is a fact. Rawlings thinks he is the best thing that happened to Ghana. I do not know whether it his light skin or the fact that he does not know his father, that makes him think that he is the best thing to happen to Ghana. Is it his low O Level certificate that makes him think he is better than all the other Leaders who were more educated than him? Did Rawlings not enter form 1 in Achimota School when Professor Atta Mills was in Upper Six? Was Professor Atta Mills not a respected prefect in Achimota School? Did Rawlings make it to sixth form; let alone become a respected prefect? Or is it his growing up days at South Labadi Estates where he grew up in the stables with horses, that makes him think that he is the best thing to happen to Ghana?

Or is it because he could not pass his promotion exams in the Armed Forces,that makes him think he is the best thing to have happened to Ghana? He opens his mouth and talks “by heart”.

The ungrateful loner that Rawlings is, he has forgotten that but for the support and help of many persons, there is no way he would have ever become President of Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana.

When on his own, he tried to lead the May 15, 1979, Uprising, did he not fail? Rawlings failed in his bid to lead the May 15 Uprising and that is a fact. The facts have it that Rawlings would have been long dead if Major Kwadwo Boakye Djan and his brave allies did not stage the June 4, 1979, successful Uprising and release Rawlings from military custody. It is also a fact that Rawlings was not the mastermind behind the December 31, 1981, Revolution. Those who know, know the master brains behind the December, 31 Revolution, which allowed Rawlings to re-emerge onto the scene and rule Ghana for 19+ long years. I take nothing away from the fact that for the 19+ years that Rawlings ruled Ghana, the nation made some solid gains as far as our growth and development is concerned. Ghana was on a downward spiral and the 31st December, 1981, Revolution reversed the spiral and put the nation on solid growth path. What Rawlings seems to forget, is the fact that, he chalked his successes because of the help of very dedicated Ghanaians. Rawlings would have been a 100% failure if he did not have certain, brains, hands, and legs who were very committed to putting Ghana on a path of recovery and growth.

Who does not know that the respected Captain KojoTsikata was the one who gave direction to Rawlings’s foreign policy and internal security?

Who does not know that it is the Professor Kofi Awoonors, Tsatsu Tsikatas, Ato Awhois, Kwesi Botchways, Totobi Quarkyis, Kwamena Awhois, P.V. Obengs who gave intellectual direction to Rawlings?

Who can forget the, Dr. Mary Grants, Harry Sawyerrs, D.F Annans, Mumuni Bawumias,?

What was Rawlings’s intellectual depth at the time he was helped to burst onto the scene as a Flight Lieutenant who could not pass his promotion exams? What about the scores of cadres, who sacrificed to make the Revolution succeed? Yet, when Rawlings opens his mouth, he talks as if he singlehandedly did everything that made the Revolution chalk significant gains. Instead of Rawlings being grateful to the hands that “fed” him to become who he became, he continues to insult each and every one of them and even insult those who are dead. Is it not sad that Rawlings today has the audacity to insult Kojo Tsikata, Professor Awoonor, Ato Awhoi and co?

As ungrateful as Rawlings is, he has forgotten that he was a complete nobody, who became somebody because some people were prepared to make their shoulders available for him to stand on and look tall.

Does Rawlings think we do not know that he and his wife are one of the richest couples in the world?

When you listen to Rawlings struggling two days ago to deny news reports that he is very rich; it is precisely because he is very rich and trying hard to make the cadres believe that he is a pauper. Fortunately, the cadres are not stupid, and know how rich Rawlings and his wife are.

Rawlings has the audacity to refer to people as “greedy bastards”? Look at the pot calling the kettle black.

Instead of Rawlings to be eternally grateful to those who made him succeed and move from his state of penury into a state of opulence, he rather opens his mouth constantly to praise himself to the high heavens while insulting all others who were the real movers and shakers.

Who does not know that it was after Rawlings fell out with Kojo Tsikata, Professor Awoonor, P.V Obeng and co, that he lost focus?

In 1996, when Rawlings had succeeded in bastardising himself and reducing himself to ground zero because he disgracefully beat up his Vice President, Nkensen Arkaah at a cabinet meeting, it was Professor John Evans Atta Mills, who bit the bullet, and stood in to give Rawlings a modicum of respectability. When all men of honour (Professor Benneh, Professor Akilakpa Sawyerr and co) were not ready to partner Rawlings in 1996 because of the disgraceful thing he had done to his Vice President Arkaah, Professor Atta Mills sacrificed his dignity and intellect to give Rawlings some measure of respectability by agreeing to be his running mate.

The intellectual community did not forgive Professor Atta Mills for agreeing to partner a roguish and brutish Flight Lieutenant who beat up his Vice President, who was a learned Professor.

The legal community did not forgive Professor Atta Mills, a legal luminary and law Professor, for agreeing to partner a coupist under whose watch three High Court judges were brutally murdered in cold blood.

The Fante community did not forgive Professor Atta Mills for agreeing to partner a man who had beat up his Fante Vice President.

That is the extent to which Professor Atta Mills sacrificed his dignity and image just to serve his dear Mother Ghana and to support Rawlings to win the 1996 election.

Instead of being thanked for the high price he paid for agreeing to partner Rawlings; our dear Professor was rather vilified by ungrateful Rawlings and his more ungrateful wife.

As Vice President, and Head of the Economic Management Team, Professor Atta Mills’ record stands tall.

As a public servant and the person who reformed our tax regime, Professor Atta Mills’ record stands very tall.

As a Leader with exemplary qualities of humility and mentoring, Professor Atta Mills’ record stands tall. As a man who preferred a pacifist approach to managing issues instead of tying people to the stakes or stripping them naked and lashing them, Professor Atta Mills’ record stands tall. It was Professor Atta Mills’ exceptional qualities that compelled Rawlings to declare his 100% support for his Vice President ala the famous Swedru Declaration.

It is the same exceptional qualities and extreme respect for Professor Atta Mills which made Rawlings throw his 100% support behind the learned Professor to once again lead the NDC into the 2004 election.

Just because the learned and respected Professor Atta Mills refused to obey the senseless orders of Rawlings to hit the streets and protest endlessly after Jake Obetsebi Lamptey declared NPP winner of the 2004 election at the Castle Gardens, Rawlings decided to turn Professor Mills into his number one enemy.

Rawlings wanted Professor Atta Mills to lead the NDC into the streets and misbehave after the 2004 elections, and because the Man of Peace refused to obey that senseless order, Rawlings turned his bile on the learned Professor. Interestingly, at the time Rawlings was issuing those senseless orders, he was on plane with his wife going to cool off with his friend Dennis Sasou Ngueso in Congo, Brazzaville. Of course, his children were also living a luxurious life in England. If Professor Atta Mills had been a “poodle” and obeyed the orders of Rawlings, only God knows what would have become of the NDC. If Professor Atta Mills had done what Rawlings asked him to do, he would have destroyed the NDC the way Akufo-Addo is destroying the NPP with the senseless case he has sent to the Supreme Court. Surely, Ghanaians cannot tolerate politicians who want power “at all cost” and would not have forgiven Professor Atta Mills if he had misbehaved after the 2004 elections.

Professor Atta Mills had a superior thinking capacity and so chose to allow the NPP to get away with stealing the mandate – knowing that in God’s time, the NDC will get the chance to build a Better Ghana. Thanks to the superior thinking power of Professor Atta Mills, the NDC built a solid image and was able to convince Ghanaians to take out the corrupt NPP in the 2008 election.

Instead of Rawlings thanking President Atta Mills for saving the NDC from collapse, after he Rawlings and his wife had destroyed the image of the party via some unacceptable conducts of theirs, the ungrateful Founder of the NDC rather chose to wage a hate campaign against the man whose qualities and virtues saved his 1996 re-election and also saved the NDC party. John Agyekum Kufuor has set up a Foundation; President Atta Mills’ Foundation is about to be launched; what is Rawlings’s legacy? Where are all the people who used to be close associates of Rawlings? Why are they no longer interested in getting close to him? What will future generations remember Rawlings for? He will surely be remembered as one megalomaniac who had delusions of grandeur and so believed that apart from him and his wife, no other human being is fit to be Leader of Mother Ghana.

There are about two generations currently who will never remember Rawlings for anything good. They will only remember him as a “spoilt” ex President who insulted all his successors.

Some of the kids of today will remember Rawlings as the former President who insulted sitting President Atta Mills and sent him into the grave. Shamelessly, Rawlings continues to insult the memory of President Atta Mills. Whether Rawlings likes it or not, his image will never soar as high as the image of President John Evans Atta Mills.

President Atta Mills has etched his memory in letters of gold and no amount of insults from Rawlings will change the solid image of President Atta Mills. For a fact, should Rawlings kick the bucket today, he will NEVER get the kind of dignified burial that President Atta Mills got. When the new history of Ghana is written, Rawlings’ standing shall be nowhere near that of His Excellency President John Evans Atta Mills. Rawlings can continue to be the ungrateful loner that he is, and surround himself with babies with “acerbic tongues” whom he instructs to hurl insults at elderly and respected folk; that is his own cup of tea. The rest of Ghana is moving on and leaving him behind in his world of messianic delusions and so-called probity and accountability. Rawlings has succeeded in turning himself into a loner and some of us do not feel sorry for him one bit.

May the soul of President Atta Mills and the departed souls of the countless persons who made Rawlings a human being, rest in perfect peace. President Atta Mills is certainly getting his reward in heaven as he rests peacefully among the saints and in the bosom of his Maker.

As for ungrateful Jerry John Rawlings and his more ungrateful wife, may they live forever in this world of sin and continue to be the extremely ungrateful characters that they are. Long live the true and grateful tenets of June 04, 1979.

Musa Majeed Luton, United Kingdom