Rawlings was and remains a Ghanaian national symbol – Samia Nkrumah

Former President Rawlings was and remains a “Ghanaian national symbol”, the Daughter of Ghana’s first President, Samia Nkrumah has said.

According to the former Chairperson of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Rawlings who died on Thursday “made us proud here in Africa and all over the world with his charisma and outspokenness.”

He died at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, where he was receiving treatment, after a short illness.

He was 73 years old.

“My sincere and deepest sympathies to Madam Nana Konadu, Hon. Zanetor, and the entire family of President Rawlings,” Nkrumah wrote in a Facebook post.

“Like many Ghanaians, I was shocked to learn about JJ’s passing. Only a few weeks ago we rallied around him at his mother’s funeral,” she said.

Nkrumah added that while she understood that “our former president was not an Nkrumaist, this never stood between us. He was always gentle with me and consistently encouraging. It is sad to see him go.”

Her greatest wish was to see Ghanaians and Africans unite and use the pain of “our past to push forward with rapid and innovative development.”



Meanwhile, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) said it will organize a separate funeral for former President Jerry John Rawlings.

According to John Asiedu Nketia, the party’s General Secretary, that was because the NDC felt President Akufo-Addo was doing everything to “hijack” the funeral of the late former President.

Rawlings was the founder of the NDC and the first President of the Fourth Republic.

“Everything about this funeral, so far, depicts an attempt by an opponent to hijack the funeral of the founding father of our political party, and we don’t think the funeral of our party founder ought to be organized somewhere, and we get invited,” Asiedu Nketia told Accra-based Citi FM.

“We have called on the immediate family to share condolences, and we are beginning to discuss the way forward. We have directed all branches of our party countrywide to organize events countrywide that will give a fitting celebration of the life of our founder… We will participate [in the national funeral] but that will not stop us from organizing our own thing,” he added.