I don’t have time to discuss Rawlings, he should live with his conscience – Kwesi Pratt

In an attempt to elude interactions about former President Jerry John Rawlings’ justification for throwing him into prison, Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr has simply stated that the former president should live with his moral sense.

The veteran journalist told GhanaWeb in an exclusive interview that he has “no time to discuss Mr Rawlings and the kinds of statement that he makes, he should live with his own conscience.”

It would be recalled that the former president in an interview with Accra-based Asaase Radio gave justifications for throwing Kwesi Pratt and his colleagues, Kweku Baako Jnr, Mawuli Goka, Akoto Ampaw and others in jail during his PNDC military rule, without trial.

The former president in the said interview insisted that the aforementioned group had become a nuisance to his rule thus their incarceration became necessary to control the situation at the time.

Mr Rawlings said, “Some of these so-called intellectuals don’t have it. They don’t seem to recognize saying this or that could provoke a situation and we’ll be starting all over again. So sometimes, I had to do what I had to do in order to contain and preempt that kind of situation…”

This evoked unpleasant memories from some of the victims of Rawlings’ alleged brutish era; particularly from Kweku Baako who in an attempt to counter the former president’s statements produce evidence to back his claims against him, in a live radio interaction on Peace FM.

But to Kwesi Pratt those are memories he would not want to relive again. In his words not only him but the entire country has moved beyond Rawlings’ era and ideologies.

“This country has moved beyond Rawlings and has moved beyond the days of fire and brimstone. He’s a former president who will never be president again,” he said.