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RAWLINGS: Scathing criticism of his successor and western governments and media

Former leader of Ghana slams successor, western governments

Former president of the republic of Ghana, Jerry Rawlings, last week attacked the administration of his successor John Kufuor, during a lecture in London.

He claimed the administration was destroying gains he made as president and accused the west of propping up a corrupt regime in the west African nation.

He was speaking at a Black History Month symposium organised by London Southbank University’s students’ union. He said of Kufuor’s government: “Today, they are suffering from delusions of omnipotence. They have become so brutal, so corrupt.

This nation of ours was doing so well,” he told the audience, crediting his government with extending electricity from 27 per cent of cities to 90 per cent of Ghana, extending roads and ports, improving access to clean water, tackling health conditions such as Guinea worm and improving air travel and flying schools so that Ghana ahead of South Africa in some areas.

REVOLUTIONARY

“We set a fine example. I am not saying we did not make mistakes, but from a revolutionary upheaval, we converted the rage into productivity …Now all this has been destroyed by the current regime… They have destroyed roads and bridges to rebuild them at three, four, five times the price,” he told a packed Castle Theatre on October 24.

Meanwhile, President Kufuor has accused Rawlings of plotting to overthrow his administration. Kufuor, who took over from Rawlings in 2001 in Ghana's first peaceful transition of power since independence, alleged Rawlings was planning a repeat of the military coup in 1981 which swept him to office.

“Rawlings has been travelling and has been to an oilrich country located far from Ghana and solicited for funds to overthrow Kufuor's government because Kufuor's government is corrupt and unpopular," the president said in a speech to a by-election rally broadcast on local radio last Monday.

Kufuor did not name the country where he alleged Rawlings had travelled to raise funds.

Flight Lieutenant Rawlings, who became head of state after a bloody coup in 1979, made no reference during his speech to allegations that he killed hundreds of Ghanaians including fellow coup generals during his 1979 to 2001 tenure.

A member of the audience, Kofi Attah, called Rawlings a liar, but was soon drowned out by Rawlings’ sympathisers.

COVERING UP

Rawlings accused agencies in the US and Britain and Western media of covering up current corrupt activities in Ghana.

“…Why is this government misbehaving so badly and is being protected by the Western governments and media? Why are they preserving the image of this corrupt regime? Because it is necessary for them to use Ghana as a showcase for the rest of Africa…,” he said.

In a speech, which often provoked laughter and support, he praised Cuban president Fidel Castro.

He lamented the state of “political immorality” and unethical business practices taking place in many African countries where, he said, public sector posts comprise sycophants and relatives of elected officials; where public sector corruption costs $1.6 billion yearly; where political leadership and business elite used up another 40 per cent of yearly income; where there was state terrorism to rule people by fear and where even “cocaine dealers” can use money to buy political power.

In a veiled reference to the west, he said: “These nation-wrecking phenomena persist because the corrupt regimes have external god-fathers who, in as much as they preach democracy, have little concern for the plight of the people whose welfare they sacrifice at the alter of regime security,” he said to applause.

WARNING

Rawlings and Eh-foreign minister, Victor Gbeho also issued a stark warning to new African regimes that they were repeating past mistakes.

“They are making the mistakes of three decades ago, making connections with so-called friends to exploit and humiliate their own people,” said Gbeho.

Rawlings added: “Because of the new world order…governments are feeling crushed. They have no voice…They have become so intoxicated that…in most parts of Africa, they are destroying any business – sometimes even their own - when it is associated with other political parties.”

He called on Africans within Africa and in the diaspora to help Africa by influencing their governments to address systemic abuses on the continent.

He said positive change would happen if there was an uncompromising break with violent, undemocratic, corrupt and brutal governments, through the empowering of women and other citizens within African countries. He said there should be a dismantling of ethnic divisions and abandonment of state terrorism and enforcement of human rights protection and security of life and land.

He said there was need for faithful adherence to tenets of national constitutions and the promotion of people manifesto where power must be given to those who are prepared to abide by the moral and ethical values of Africa and African societies.

Rawlings made it clear he did not approve of some policies and tactics of US president George W. Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair, which he said were having disastrous consequences such as increasing hatred of the west.

“Maybe Bush and Blair had good intentions, but their manner of approaching that whole exercise was wrong. You don’t have to be a military officer to realise that all you to had to do was to hold Iraq under siege maybe for another month or two for it to have collapsed, but our republican brothers and sisters led by Bush and Blair felt that this was the appropriate moment to crack the whip to demonstrate the new world order.

“In effect, what they did - in moving in when they did, the message they sent was that the right of might supersedes the moral authority of what is right.

“Humanity has evolved through adherence and a reverence for moral value. It was not the use of brutal force. Some have done so over time. The use of brutal force must be used to supplement not to replace the social sense of responsibility of the society.

“To do otherwise would be sending the wrong signal. You will begin to create fear. The fear would degenerate into hatred.”

Published: 03 November 2006
Issue: 1242

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