Rawlings was a lucky man – Kwesi Pratt

Kwesi Pratt Junior, the Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, has indicated that the late Jerry John Rawlings (Rtd.) who is the founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), was the luckiest Ghanaian leader who ever lived.

According to him, Rawlings had been credited with so many things that he never contributed to and he did so many things that, before him, “no Ghanaian politician would have dared; even think about.”

Speaking on the Pan African TV programme “Alhaji and Alhaji” last Saturday, January 30, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. indicated that Jerry John Rawlings (Rtd) spear-headed efforts to undo what the late Kwame Nkrumah did in Ghana and Africa.

Assessing the life and legacy of Jerry John Rawlings, Kwesi Pratt explained, “In 1983, he accepted the World Bank, IMF prescriptions for national economic development, but it was [a] total national economic decay.”

Pratt added that the World Bank and IMF programmes accepted by Jerry John Rawlings and his government at the time involved a mass retrenchment of labour in the country.

“As a result, in the period of one year, 300,000 workers lost their jobs in the public and civil service. The hardship imposed on the Ghanaian people was so unbearable that by the end of the year, they came up with what they called the Programme of Action to Mitigate the Social Cost of Adjustment [PAMSCAD], in order to cushion the Ghanaian people for the havoc imposed upon them,” Pratt recalled.

“Subsidies on all social services were withdrawn, including health and education. It was during this period that the concept of cost-sharing in education came up. It was during this period also that this whole concept of cost-sharing was extended to health services. Under him, more than 300 state [owned] enterprises [SOEs] were divested...It is significant to note that by the year 2000 when Rawlings was exiting office, inflation was hovering around 45 per cent.”

Kwesi Pratt Jnr, however, stressed, “But you know one thing we must all say for Mr Rawlings, that he was a very very lucky man. Extremely lucky man.”

The veteran journalist based his opinion of luck on watching the final funeral rites and listening to all the tributes that were read for the late former president and emphasised that J. J. Rawlings was “an extraordinarily lucky man”.