Rawlings promoted Christian values, despised bribery – Spio-Garbrah

Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, a former Minister of Trade, says late former President Jerry John Rawlings, promoted Christian values through his lifestyle and despised bribery, corruption, illegal mining, and environmental degradation.

He said he (Rawlings), also fought for social justice and longed for the total wellbeing of the nation.

“We should remember his values of integrity, probity and accountability, transparency and social justice. These are the values I have inculcated personally in my life,” he said.

“People should abide by his values as I have tried to live by it in my way. Unless we want to say living by those values is for old people or old-timers and that they are no longer applicable to Ghana.”

Mr Spio-Garbrah said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency after filing past the mortal remains of former President Rawlings at the Accra International Conference Centre.

Flt. Lt. Rawlings, who was the first President of the fourth Republic, passed away on Thursday, November 12, 2020, at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, after a short illness.

Mr Spio-Garbrah said Mr Rawlings sacrificed himself and lived entirely for Ghana, saying, “People might have thought that he came to enjoy himself because that is how people think about Heads of States but this was a very different President.

“No President, since he left office and even before he left office, has entered the gutters of Nima to clean it for them. No President has ever lifted sacks of cocoa …to bring them to the ports when Ghana had difficulty in shipping its exports. He loved his country and cared for his people,” he stated.

The former Trade Minister, who is currently the Chairman of the African Business Centre for Developing Education, said the man, Rawlings, “played a crucial and the biggest role in making what many including engineers saw impossibility, a possibility for Ghana, especially the Northern side to obtain electricity.



“He made this possible to the point that Ghana now has the second-highest electricity power connection per capita after South Africa in Africa. People should thank Rawlings for the power they have in their homes now particularly in Tamale, Bunkpurugu, and Walewale, among others.”