JJ Does Not Need Dishonourable Mpiani To Respect Him

Aide to former President Jerry John Rawlings, Kofi Adams has hit back at Chief of Staff in the Kufuor administration, Kwadwo Mpiani, describing him as a dishonourable person not worthy of showing respect to former President Rawlings.

Mr. Mpiani was reported by an Accra newspaper to have called on former President Rawlings to allow himself to be respected.

This was in reaction to the speech the former president’s delivered during the recent anniversary held in commemoration of the December 31, 1981 revolution.

The NPP guru averred in the interview he granted the paper that since 1979, former President Rawlings had said nothing new about his stand on others - that with the exception of himself, any other person is a thief, corrupt and should not be allowed to live.

He subsequently called on the former president to allow himself to be respected by Ghanaians.

On Mr. Rawlings’ allegation that former President Kufuor was out there to destroy the army, Kwadwo Mpiani contended that if there was anybody to testify on which government destroyed the army; it would be the army itself.

But Mr. Adams will have none of that. In an interview with Emefa Apawu, host of the Big Bite on Xfm 95.1, a privately owned commercial radio station in Accra, Mr. Adams repeated Mr. Rawlings’ assertions that the Kufuor administration run down the army, asking, “If you increase salaries and put in officers of dishonour to run down an institution, of what value is that?”

“Everybody knows the enviable record of Ghanaian troupes abroad and home under the era of JJ. It is this enviable record that were threatened by acts of former President Kufuor when he took charge of this country,” Kofi Adams spoke of former President Kufuor, adding, “he reduced many of the units into virtually being useless; destroying equipment that had been maintained from the days of Dr Nkrumah and replacing them with helicopters that virtually take the whole day to start”.

Reacting to calls that the former President should allow himself to be respected, Mr. Adams said the former President himself is not looking for respect from dishonourable people like Mr. Mpiani.

“I don’t think anybody is looking for respect from persons like Kojo Mpiani because these are persons of dishonour and if the respect is going to come from them, then it is even better you do not get it.”

He also further accused the NPP of being very corrupt as asserted to by Mr. Rawlings, saying there were given examples from the NPP’s own stable as evidence, wondering why Mr. Mpiani will dispute that.