Remembering JJ Rawlings: God will be his judge – Palmer Buckle eulogises

Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle has pointed out despite the excesses of the former late President Rawlings, only the omniscient God can be the judge of his life.

The Metropolitan Archbishop of Cape Coast in a sermon at a requiem mass held in honour of Jerry Rawlings described him as one who yearned and longed for righteousness.

“This is what the Lord laid on my heart as I reflected on the public life of Jerry John Rawlings and the service he rendered this nation and humanity as a whole. Jerry in his own way was always hungry and thirsting for righteousness. Jerry in his own way fought for the poor. He longed for the coming of the kingdom of Heaven. He worked for justice to be established for the underprivileged and he could not tolerate the slow pace at which this was coming to birth,” he stated

“I am again deeply convinced that finally, and at least, Jerry has come to the full truth he so hungered for. Jerry has now come to understand that which was driving him on an appreciate which was and how maybe unknowingly, he was an instrument in the hand of an omniscient God and how this all-powerful God was fulfilling history with Jerry as one of his divine instruments,” he declared.

“Beloved, if there is any legacy that we can uphold of Jerry John Rawlings, let us first and foremost forgive him for what in our eyes, and estimations, seemed, seemingly, excesses in his life,” Archbishop Palmer-Buckle appealed.

The Archbishop added that the archives of Ghana’s history can never be written without the exploits of Jerry John Rawlings who is Ghana’s longest-serving president.

President Akufo-Addo, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, former President Mahama, state officials and stalwarts from both the National Democratic Congress and New Patriotic Party all graced the occasion in Accra.

Also in attendance was the former first lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, the widow of the late former president Rawlings and their four children.