Rawlings was intelligent, smart & sensitive – Prof. Jane Opoku-Agyemang

Vice presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2020 Presidential Elections, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang has described the late former president of Ghana, Jerry John Rawlings, as being intelligent, smart and sensitive while he lived.

The former education minister said she got to know Rawlings through and through when she had the opportunity as the first person to have ever interviewed him live.

Speaking to Komla Adom at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) Tuesday, January 26, where there is a laying-in-state for the late president, she described her encounter with Rawlings as a humbling moment.

“I’m a lucky person in the sense that I was the first person to have interviewed him live, it had never happened before and it allowed me to get close to him because until then I had never met him before”, she recounted.She said her meeting with Rawlings changed some perceptions she initially held about him.

“It allowed me to put aside a lot of the things I had heard about him and to experience the man for who he was – I found him to be very intelligent, very smart, very astute, and sensitive and what I appreciated along all of this was that he was able to think on his feet and I really appreciated that”, she said.

Prof Jane Opoku-Agyemang said she will always remember Ghana’s first president of the 4th Republic for his dedication to his values – Probity, Transparency and Accountability, and what she describes as “his uncompromising stance” on issues.

She had joined other well-meaning Ghanaians including the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and his vice, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, former heads of state, Members of Parliament, Justices of the Supreme Court and others at the Accra International Conference Centre to file past the body of the former president J.J Rawlings which has been laid in state.

She said her meeting with Rawlings changed some perceptions she initially held about him.

“It allowed me to put aside a lot of the things I had heard about him and to experience the man for who he was – I found him to be very intelligent, very smart, very astute, and sensitive and what I appreciated along all of this was that he was able to think on his feet and I really appreciated that”, she said.

Prof Jane Opoku-Agyemang said she will always remember Ghana’s first president of the 4th Republic for his dedication to his values – Probity, Transparency and Accountability, and what she describes as “his uncompromising stance” on issues.

She had joined other well-meaning Ghanaians including the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and his vice, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, former heads of state, Members of Parliament, Justices of the Supreme Court and others at the Accra International Conference Centre to file past the body of the former president J.J Rawlings which has been laid in state.