Rawlings’ May 15 uprising, June 4 Coup were 'necessary evil' - Obiri Boahen

Private legal practitioner and Deputy General Secretary of the NPP, Nana Obiri Boahen recounting the significance of May 15 in the political history of the country has stated that Rawlings’ May 15 uprising and June 4 coup d’état were necessary evil events in the country.

He explained that the emergence of Jerry Rawlings in the political scene in the country through the May 15 uprising and June 4 coup cooled off tempers and a lot of things as there was high tension in the country at that time.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Nana Obiri Boahen insisted the happenings in Africa at that time made Rawlings’s June 4 coup a timely intervention as it stopped Arab Spring experience from happening in the country even though the country was preparing for an election.

He added that the June coup d’état made university students agreed in principle to leave school and stay home to assist in the development of the country; hence, he begged to differ from those who condemned and still condemning Rawlings for the May 15 uprising and the June 4 coup d’état.

“If I hear people condemn Rawlings on what happened, personally I will disagree; I beg to differ because the emergence of Rawlings in the political scene, June 4 cooled off tempers and it cooled off a lot of things in the country. If it had not happened at that time, something bad would have happened. The June 4 coup made University students agreed in principle to leave school and stay home to help the country,” he opined.

Inasmuch as the Deputy General Secretary of the NPP acknowledged the excesses in the uprising and the subsequent coup, he maintained his disagreement with those who faulted Jerry John Rawlings on what he did on May 15 and June 4.

“I have made my position clear, in all honesty, I may be wrong or I may be right; for me when I see that some people are faulting Jerry Rawlings on what he did on 15th May and June 4, I disagree with them. I may be right, I may be wrong. For me, I have been saying that even though there were excesses of May uprising, there were excesses of June 4, I still believe that May 15 uprising and June 4 coup even if it was evil, it was a necessary evil. That is my opinion about the events,” he professed.

He stressed that before the advent of the June 4 coup d’état, there was an incident at the Makola market where out of the bad name carved for the military, some women in the market poured urine on some soldiers; hence, the need to purge the Army to weed out the bad ones.

“Rawlings is a human being and not an angel and those who followed him were human beings and not angels too; there were excesses and some of the excesses even happened at the blind side because if you read some of these cases as a lawyer, how they were tried in court was nasty, but for me, as for June 4, if they say that we are throwing it away . . . we are wrong,” he said.

Setting the record straight about Major Osahene Boakye Gyan's (rtd) involvement in June 4 incident, Nana Obiri Boahen intimated that the retired Major was not part of June 4 uprising.

“When they were going to rescue Jerry Rawlings from the guardroom, Boakye Gyan was not part of the soldiers. He was not part of the coup d’état; it was later that he was made the spokesperson,” he said.