IS RAWLINGS REALLY HELPING THE NDC?

I am inspired as a young person by the courage and vim Mr. Rawlings has in freely speaking his mind to try to evaluate whether JJ is really helping the NDC. I used to be a great admirer of Mr. Rawlings and his family because of two main reasons. One, I share the same birth date with him and secondly because under his administration my family was living well but currently I am beginning to develop a dislike for him because of his utterances towards his own chosen person H.E. President John Evans Atta-Mills and his continuous degrade of the former President John Agyekum Kuffuor.

Mr. Rawlings is a person who came to power by the barrel of the gun though in 1992 he moved on further to become a democratically elected president. Some say he is the father of democracy in Ghana but the most important fact is that he remains a military person because of the saying once a soldier always a soldier and sometimes Ghanaians will forgive him for some of his actions. For the past 15 months I have come to disagree with our former president because of the following;

Few months in office, Mr. Rawlings begun criticizing his party-led government for being slow though he is aware it takes sometime for a new person in office to get acquainted with the huge task of running the country. In Ghana, this man is very revered and whatever he says is news to the media yet he does not seem to realize this fact and come to terms with it. Some social commentators even say the current president has performed much better in his first year in office than JJ did. He goes on to describe some current ministers appointed by Atta-Mills as Team B and generally say the DCE’s and MCE’s should be relieved of their positions because they are under performing even though I am sure any suggestions he makes are taken strongly. This, a former president should not come out to say openly and more especially because he is the founder of the political party in power.

Again, Mr. Rawlings does not bother to take a swipe at Mr. Kuffuor whenever an opportunity presented itself. Three days ago, Mr. Rawlings and Mr. Kuffuor found themselves under the same roof of a church taking communion when the Asantehene invited both of them to his 60th birthday anniversary. After this he granted interview to Joy Fm and was asked the question of whether their meeting meant they had both smoked the peace pipe. Mr. Rawlings’ response was that until the injustices and massive corruption under Mr. Kuffuor’s administration were resolved he could not be at peace with a fellow ex-president. It really hit me hard when JJ mentioned injustice and corruption since there is an on-going, very popular Mabey and Johnson bribery scandal which took place under his administration and what we are all aware of during the revolution era. When this happens, he gives way to the opposition to open wounds that may have healed or are healing and in a sense make the NDC look violent.

I agree that some grave and intentional actions were taken against him and his family during the 2001-2008 part of Ghana’s democracy. For instance, he was called before the BNI and his wife sent to court over the Nsawam Cannery issue but this should not make him so sore as to tarnish his party’s better Ghana agenda. Mr. Rawlings is not a saint and not even the best President the country has seen so far bearing in mind the legacies of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah so he should be mindful and careful of whatever he says and should always make use of his spokesperson Mr. Kofi Adams.