JJ gives conditions for reconciliation with JAK

Chronicle -- The former president, J.J Rawlings has stated that even though he personally had nothing against president John Agyekum Kufuor, he was not prepared to reconcile with him. He said Cardinal Appiah Turkson who was reportedly making the move to reconcile the two of them should know that truth and lies couldn?t stay at one place.

?You want to reconcile us but my colleague Kwame Peprah is still in jail despite the nationalistic service job he did for this country because somebody wanted to achieve his political motive. If Turkson wants to get involved, that is fine but let us get the figures right. Who is persecuting the nationalists in this country? Look, let us all go and taste what is at Nsawam and when we come back, we can talk about reconciliation,? he said.

The ex -president Rawlings who was speaking to Goodnews FM, a leading Takoradi-based private radio station last Tuesday on telephone said our generals were sacrificed on the account of massive corruption that was going on at the time but few years after he had left office after leading the country for almost 20 years, the Kufuor government had re-introduced corruption and the rot to the society.

He told his host, Kwesi Essel that President Kufuor must first reconcile himself with the truth and stop the massive corruption he and members of his government had got themselves entangled in before they approached him for reconciliation, adding that the lies doing the rounds in this government had their judicial and social consequences.

?Look, listen to me, I have no problem with reconciliation but we must first reconcile ourselves with the truth and condemn the lies going on. You lied to the people to get to office and this has continued up to date with the support from the media,? he said, adding that he Rawlings was neither prosecuting anybody in the country nor showing any sign of vindictiveness to justify the call for reconciliation.

Ex-President Rawlings further told his listeners that he felt bitter about the mysterious death of some prominent people in the country, including the Ya-na, the overlord of Dagbon and regretted that despite this horrible death, Bishop Palmer Buckle sat as a member of the National Reconciliation Commission and failed to come to terms with the truth. ?This is complete dishonesty,? he added.

The former president also confirmed an earlier statement made on the same radio station by Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi that he had had secret meetings with President Kufuor when he assumed power. He, however, did not talk about what transpired at the said meetings.

Mr. Jerry John Rawlings was called on by the radio station to comment on his alleged assault on the DCE for Bongo when the host chipped in the question as to whether he was prepared to accept the reconciliation move being made by Cardinal Turkson to reconcile him and President Kufuor.