Dr. Kwesi Jonah of Institute of Democratic Governance has justified the 1981 coup d’etat which led to the late former President and military ruler, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings overthrowing a Constitutional government of Dr. Hilla Limann as justifiable.
“So to understand Rawlings very well, one would have to go back to the time he came to power in 1981. The economy was in crisis and the nation’s political system was notoriously unstable which compelled him to take over power and the man (Mr. Rawlings) succeeded in spite of various ideological pressures” Dr. Jonah observed
Speaking on Citi TV and Citi FM’s weekend current affairs programme, The Big Issue last Saturday, January 30, 2021, monitored by MyNewsGh.com, the security analyst noted that Mr. Rawlings at the time adopted pragmatic measures that restored the economy back to health and then gradually reconstructed the political system to the very stable system at the moment.
“He had to change and to transform the economy and the political system but not from a very rigidly ideological standpoint and those who did not understand him to be such a pragmatic politician saw him in all kinds of perspectives that were absolutely not correct”, Dr. Kwesi Johah pointed out.
“He appeared to be such an enigma in the eyes of people because people didn’t understand what he stood for. He wasn’t a very ideological person”, he added.
Dr. Kwesi Johah, therefore, described the first and longest-serving president under the Fourth Republican Constitution as an incorruptible person.
“One thing that you can say about Rawlings is he was not corrupt and incorruptible. So he had this moral stature among the people that he led. Therefore, people were ready to listen to him and go along with and that is what made him succeed in bringing our political system to where it is now.”
Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings died at the age of 73 on November 12, 2020, at the 37 Military Hospital and was buried on Wednesday, January 27, 2021, at the new Military Cemetery in Accra.
Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings’s National Radio Broadcasts – Ghana Military Uprising June 1979
