Flashback: Had Mills ‘done something wiser’ he could have survived - Rawlings

A day after the sudden demise of President John Evan Atta Mills, former president Rawlings in an interview with BBC incurred the wrath of several Ghanaians for insinuating that the late leader could have prolonged his life if he had done something wiser.

Jerry John Rawlings was quoted to have said, “It was quite a shock to both my wife and I because he’s been battling the cancer for quite a while but this is certainly the wrong time for him to go because we have elections around the corner in December”

He continued that, “quite frankly I think that had he been advised and done something wiser earlier on, he could probably have survived for another six, seven months, I guess but it got too tight, it got extremely tight.”

This was not received well by the family of late president Mills but Mr Rawlings in a rather swift response apologised for his comments in the said interview.

Read the full story originally published on July 25, 2012, on Ghanaweb

Former President Jerry John Rawlings says if the late President Mills had “done something wiser” he could have survived a while longer than he did.

Speaking on the BBC, former President Rawlings who has never seen eye-to-eye with the late president since the latter assumed office in 2009, said the news of his former deputy’s demise came as a surprise to his household.

“It was quite a shock to both my wife and I because he’s been battling the cancer for quite a while but this is certainly the wrong time for him to go because we have elections around the corner in December,” he stated.

Mr. Rawlings said “quite frankly I think that had he been advised and done something wiser earlier on, he could probably have survived for another six, seven months, I guess but it got too tight, it got extremely tight.”

Asked what his impression of the late president’s legacy was, Mr. Rawlings said “he’s played his part. As my Vice President, he was one of the finest but there again, considering that the cancer affected his eyes and ears, he couldn’t sustain more than three hours a day so it was naturally going to affect his performance.”

He said his main problem with the Mills-administration was his inability to reinvestigate the “cold-blooded killings” of people under the erstwhile Kufuor administration.

On his personal opinion on whether newly sworn-in President Mahama is capable of manning the office, Mr. Rawlings said “I don’t know but I hope so.”**