The remains of the former President on a gun carriage at the Black Star Square yesterday
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo joined world leaders, former leaders of the country and other dignitaries at the Black Star Square in Accra, to pay his respect to the late former President Jerry John Rawlings.
A four-day funeral ceremony, which started Sunday, January 24, with a requiem mass service at the Holy Spirit Cathedral at Adabraka ending on Wednesday, was held in honour of the longest-serving Ghanaian leader who died at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra on November 12, aged 73.
In a moving tribute, President Akufo-Addo wished the first President of the Fourth Republic farewell describing him fondly as, “Commandante.”
According to the President, the late Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings burst onto the scene like a meteor, “but a meteor that did not burst into flames and disintegrate like all meteors do. On the contrary, it remained potent until the very end of its life, leaving strong footprints in the sands of time.”
Turbulent Occurrences
“The turbulent occurrences of the 1970s in Ghana – the overthrow of the Second Republic and the Progress Party Government by the military coup of January 13, 1972; the takeover of power by Col. I.K. Acheampong-led National Redemption Council and, subsequently, the Supreme Military Council; the proscription of multiparty democracy; the professionals’ strike of 1976; the March 1978 Referendum on the proposal to entrench military rule through the Union Government concept; the formation of the People’s Movement for Freedom and Justice (PMFJ) to mobilise the ‘No Vote’ in the Referendum; the consequences of the vote, and the conspiracy to abduct the Electoral Commissioner; the palace coup that removed Gen. Kutu Acheampong from office and ushered in General Fred Akuffo in his stead – culminated in the emergence of Flt. Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings in the political space of our country,” he recounted.
President Akufo-Addo said many Ghanaians ascribed to Rawlings as a charismatic, energetic, fearless leader, a young air force officer, who announced his presence in Ghana’s politics by the abortive coup of May 15, 1979, indicating that he was sentenced to death for his part in the failed effort.
“He gave, at his trial, an important insight into his character, when he stood up, before the military tribunal, to accept sole responsibility for the attempt, and to request the NCOs, who were being tried with him, to be absolved and freed by the tribunal,” he intimated.
Defining Moment
The President said that the great events that were to define Mr. Rawlings’ career followed quickly after his trial, conviction and sentence, and added that three weeks later, whilst awaiting execution of his sentence, Mr. Rawlings was dramatically freed from prison by the insurgents of what has come to be known as the “June 4th Uprising”, when junior officers and other ranks of the Ghana Armed Forces banded together to throw out the Supreme Military Council, and install the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) that was headed by him.
“It is no wonder that he came to regard June 4th as ‘that divine day’,” the President stated and continued that JJ re-emerged as Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), when he led the successful coup that brought the short-lived Third Republic to an end on December 31, 1981.
“The tumultuous, and at times lawless, incidents of the AFRC’s three month tenure of office, and of the early years of PNDC rule, are matters of record, winning him passionate admirers, vociferous critics and determined lifelong enemies, all at the same time,” President Akufo-Addo asserted.
He noted that the late Flt. Lt Rawlings was the longest serving ruler in Ghana’s history – 11 years as a military leader and eight years as a twice elected civilian President, making 19 years in all.
Dynamic Konadu
“He was fortified in his work by his union with his celebrated consort, the equally dynamic Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, who proved to be a sturdy pillar and invaluable companion to the very end, and who bore him four children, the eldest of whom, Zanetor, is continuing his tradition of public service,” he added.
Frosty Relationship
He said “it was no secret that the relationship that existed between the two of us, right from the heady days of 1979, through to my brief period in exile, his assumption of office as the first President of the Fourth Republic, the historic Kume Preko demonstrations, my period as Attorney General and Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Kufuor administration, to my being elected as 2008 NPP presidential candidate, was one of open animosity” and added, “We did not see eye to eye!!”
Cordial Relationship
However, President Akufo-Addo stated that with time things changed. He said, “We came to see value in each other and understood, to a very large degree, our respective perspectives. One thing we had in common was our mutual commitment to public service.”
“My visit to his Ridge residence in 2012 signified the easing of tensions between us, leading to a friendship that lasted for the better part of some eight years. Indeed, when the Ghanaian people, in 2016, reposed, for the first time, their confidence in me in the elections of that year, one of the first persons on whom I paid a courtesy call was His Excellency Jerry John Rawlings,” he revealed.
He continued, “From my entry into office, right up to the day he was called by his maker, he remained a good friend and a repository of sound advice. I knew that in moments of difficulty in my presidency I could count on his considerable wealth of experience and knowledge. On those occasions, he came through for me.”
Symbolic Gesture
The President indicated that there was a symbolic gesture his predecessor advanced to him at the funeral of his late mother, Madam Victoria Agbotui, held at the Forecourt of the State House on October 24, 2020.
“It was to be our last time together. He was called up by the clergy to receive special prayers as the only surviving son,” he said and added that Mr. Rawlings told the men of God to wait and called for him to walk up to join him (Rawlings) to receive the special prayers.
“He whispered to my ears as I stood beside him: ‘I reminded them that they should pray for you also because you had also lost your mother.’ I was touched by this,” the President stated.
For him, “It is for good reason that his well-known, oft-cited ideals of “probity and accountability”, in which he invested a great deal of his political capital, have been enshrined in the constitution of the Fourth Republic, and, together with “Freedom and Justice”, the words of our nation’s motto, constitute the foundational principles on which social order is to be developed in Ghana.”
Rawlings Legacy
As a man credited to be the founder of the Fourth Republic, a republic which has proved to be the most enduring and stable in the nation’s history, and which has witnessed eight successive elections, three peaceful changes of government from a party to another and five Presidents.
He recalled how with all his revolutionary antecedents, Rawlings in the year 2001, set the enviable precedent, which has, since, guided the country, of respecting the two-term limit of the presidency and superintending the orderly transfer of power to his democratically-elected successor, former President Kufuor.
UDS Naming
Even though Mr. Rawlings declined an offer President Akufo-Addo made to him in 2017 to have the University of Development Studies in Tamale (UDS), which he personally helped establish, named after him because he did not want any national monument to be named after him, President Akufo-Addo has decided to name it after him in honour of his memory.
It will thus be known and called the Jerry John Rawlings University of Development Studies, Tamale.
The African nationalist that he was, President Akufo-Addo said Rawlings held unwavering positions on all matters concerning the wider continent of Africa, especially when they involved foreign interference and control of Africa’s destiny, and was quick to voice his views on them.
ECOWAS Status
“His chairmanship of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government set the example, whereby virtually all his successors, John Agyekum Kufuor, John Dramani Mahama, and I, the second, fourth and fifth Presidents, respectively, of the Fourth Republic, have been honoured by their peers with the occupancy of that high office, reinforcing the pan-African vocation which has been an essential element of Ghanaian public policy since independence,” he noted.
To that end, he said “I believe that history, on balance, will be kind to him, and will render a positive verdict on his contribution to the evolution of our nation, and the entrenchment of its democratic institutions and culture.”
He therefore expressed his heartfelt condolences and that of his family and the government and people of Ghana to his beloved wife, Nana Konadu, his children, Zenator, Yaa Asantewa, Amina, and Kimathi, and his entire family for their great loss of one of the outstanding figures of modern Ghanaian history, a man whose sense of humour was truly infectious.
“‘Comandante’, rest and abide in perfect peace in the bosom of the Almighty, until we all meet again on the last day of the resurrection,” was his farewell message.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu & Ernest Kofi Adu