Former President John Agyekum Kufuor
Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has denied claims by ex- President Rawlings that he and ex-Nigerian President Olusegun Obansanjo were sent to talk Zimbabwean President to step down.
According to the Guardian Newspaper of Nigeria, Jerry John Rawlings said in an interview that ex-Presidents Kufour and Obasanjo were snubbed by Robert Mugabe when they were sent by two western leaders to talk him (Mugabe) into stepping down.
In a press release Tuesday signed by Frank Agyekum, the ex-President Kufour “wondered how former President Rawlings should be the only one to know if such a mission ever took place.”
The statement recounts how some meetings were held at the Commonwealth Heads of State meeting in Nigeria in 2003 to show concern about heightened political tensions in Zimbabwe following a new policy by Robert Mugabe with some Heads of State requesting some of the leaders gathered to intervene to help calm tempers.
“Former President Kufuor also denies claims by Former President Rawlings that Ghana under his rule had become a ‘captive state’ that was being ‘whitewashed’ by ‘Western media and Western governments, in spite of the atrocities and the corruption that was going on,”’ the statement said.
Read the statement below
The Office of Former President John Agyekum Kufuor rejects as untrue and unfounded assertions by Former President Jerry John Rawlings that he and Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obansanjo were snubbed by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, when two western leaders allegedly sent them there to ask him to step down.
Former President Rawlings is said to have made this observation in an interview with the Guardian Newspaper of Nigeria which has been reproduced by some in the Ghanaian media.
Former President Kufuor categorically denies such a mission with Former President Obasanjo, and wondered how Former President Rawlings should be the only one to know if such a mission ever took place.
”It beats one’s understanding that such an untrue narrative could be concocted,” Former President Kufuor wondered.
Former President Kufuor recounts that at the Commonwealth Heads of State meeting in Nigeria in 2003, the Heads of State were concerned about the heightened political tension in Zimbabwe following the government’s decree to seize white lands for blacks, and requested some of the leaders gathered to intervene to help calm tempers.
Former Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Obasanjo of Nigeria volunteered to go on the mission.
“I was never part of such an endeavour, and it is disappointing that Former President Rawlings, who must know the facts, will add my name to it after all these years,” he said.
Former President Kufuor also denies claims by Former President Rawlings that Ghana under his rule had become a ‘captive state’ that was being ‘whitewashed’ by ‘Western media and Western governments, in spite of the atrocities and the corruption that was going on.”’
President Rawlings is not the only living Ghanaian during the administration of President Kufuor, and therefore he cannot rewrite history for Ghanaians.
President Kufuor asserts that whatever commendations his government received were worldwide and well deserved and were based on the results-oriented approach that was brought to bear on governance during his eight years at the helm of affairs of Ghana.
This Office asserts that it is becoming one too many. President Rawlings must leave President Kufuor alone. If he wants to stand on the rooftops to proclaim his sainthood, he has all the right to do so without mentioning President Kufuor’s name in his sanctimonious proclamations.
The records are there; historical, statistical, economic, and social records, for all well-meaning Ghanaians to compare and contrast.
The achievements of President Kufuor’s government, during his eight-year tenure, was without denying any soul their human rights as citizens, and without a single blood being shed or a single political prisoner created.
President Kufuor’s era has been acclaimed as an era of economic growth with marked expansion in personal freedoms to the envy of even some of the Asian Tigers of current times.
Ghanaians are the best judges of the eight-year record of President Kufuor and the 19 year record of President Rawlings. Let history judge the two periods of Ghana’s stewardship, and not President Rawlings as the referee.
Signed:
Frank Agyekum