Are the Rawlingses a Curse, or a Blessing to Ghana?

The Rawlingses have since the year 1979 been the focus of the Ghana media for various reasons. For the sake of the present generation and posterity, I am going to subject them to analytical scrutiny to see whether or not they are a curse or a blessing to Mother Ghana. I am going to present my readers with a concise explanation.

Mr. Rawlings, an exuberant young army officer full of good intentions for Ghana became embittered when his army superiors were found to be toying with the future of Ghana. Life had become a bit of nightmare; cost of living becoming unbearable to many Ghanaians, especially, the city dwellers. He blamed the situation on his army superiors for deviating from their basic professional obligations, to rather dabbling in politics. Official corruption, embezzlement of public funds, intentional creation of artificial shortages of essential commodities had become the order of the day. When poverty hits you, life goes out of the window. Mr Rawlings was so hard hit that he could hardly make ends meet but to live on advance borrowing. He could only keep his soul and body together through borrowing things like "Yoko gari". A plan was hatched to liberate Ghana from the venomous tentacles of his superiors who were then at the helm of affairs in Ghana. These army

superiors were seen with protrusive abdomen, an indication of living well whilst Mr. Rawlings was miserably walking about with protuberant collar bones

He volunteered to stage two coup d'états in 1979 the last of which became successful according as he had anticipated. He encouraged the junior army officers in what was a classical zombie revolution to disrespect their superiors. Military discipline just flew out of the window to be replaced with indiscipline, thuggery, bullying and indiscriminate killings of innocent citizens. He did well to administer capital punishment to those top military personnel in government thought to have brought about the economic hardship the country was experiencing. They were tried in camera in kangaroo courts hurriedly instituted by his AFRC military junta with prejudicial specifications. They had no recourse to fair trial let alone appealing against the sentences passed. Those found guilty in what was a military cleansing hinged on animosity, tribalism, peer pressure and other related nonsense, were tied to the post and shot at the Labadi Beach military range. Bravo to

Rawlings who had come to inculcate virtue, the love of truth, and discipline in the military and Ghanaians at large. Painfully, one innocent Air Vice- Marshal Yaw Boakye was accused of, and consequently executed for, genuinely taking a Bank loan of then 50,000 Cedis. This in view of Rawlings spotting his usual opaque sunglasses was an abuse of position by Yaw Boakye. Why couldn't he raise a loan of a pesewa but Yaw could raise 50,000 Cedis, he might have said? Yaw should die for this! And Yaw was killed. This is Rawlings for you.

Rawlings was able to bring fear into Ghanaians to behave themselves responsibly. He retrieved a lot of money from those who had and would otherwise have evaded tax payments. He seized other people's properties including factories and houses. He also ensured those accused of hoarding essential commodities had their houses knocked down. But could we in the end find the money so collected from the tax evaders? No. Where was it then? Ask the altruist Rawlings.

Rawlings' understanding was that it was wrong for any military personnel to overthrow a democratically elected government. Was this not almost the sole motivating factor for executing those top military personnel found in government when he succeeded with his notorious usurpation?

Rawlings went against the very sparkling introduction of military discipline ascribed to him. He detested any military intervention in politics. However, having briefly tasted power in 1979 and found it to be sweet, he desired to come back on 31st December 1981. He had accused the Limann Government of messing up the country through the usual Ghanaian malaise - corruption. He staged a coup and brought in his PNDC dictatorial junta. He presided over the indirect abolition of human rights in Ghana. People were terrorized, humiliated and killed in the name of discipline and the parochial aspirations of the PNDC. Nobody could discuss the Rawlingses on buses, trains, and in public unless one was to shower praises on them. Rawlings himself physically assaulted his "school boys" ministers or mentees whom he perceived not to be strictly towing his line of reasoning or system of philosophical doctrines. Was Vice-President Ackaah not accosted or beaten up

personally by Mr. Rawlings? Had Rawlings not once said to Reverend Bishop Akwasi Sarpong, "If I was not a Head of State, I would have beaten you physically personally?"

Many are those that lost their 50 Cedis notes to Rawlings. Where did he take them as they were still legal tender? He refunded some to their owners. But many others from whom the money was taken or withdrawn did not receive theirs back. Was this not some sort of perpetration of thievery? The Rawlingses as lanky and "Nchanga-like" as they formerly were are currently bulging toads. They had seen rich persons as enemies of their tacky revolution. They are themselves now super rich. They adore wallowing in affluence. Not only that, they also like commanding power. They are equally corrupt as those they accused and killed. He is corrupt because he has friends who catered for his children's expensive schooling and lifestyles abroad. He has friends paying him in kind by buying him expensive cars. One may kindly ask, "What did he do for those friends to merit such favours from them?" Let them keep on underestimating the intelligence of Ghanaians. There are those

blockheads they can continue to fool always but not every Ghanaian.

President Mills being honest, God fearing, sincere and well focused, does not accept even Christmas chicken from anyone. To him, it is a form of bribe. The Rawlingses will accept anything offered to them same as the Chinese eat anything that moves. The Rawlingses could treat anyhow Mr. John Agyekum Kuffour for being once their employee. They still love to insult Mr. Kuffour for no apparent reason. Do they spare Mr. John Evans Atta Mills their rod of insults? No, they don't. Why are they what they are? Why do they see themselves as the only credible two individuals able and ordained to rule Ghana? Why do they hate the NPP and whatever it stands for with passion? Are the Rawlingses not avid distractors? Why do they hate themselves that much by creating unnecessary tensions in the country that culminates in insults directed at them? He who wishes malevolence upon another will himself suffer negative attributes. Are the Rawlingses then in your view a curse

or a blessing to Ghana? "By their fruits ye shall know them".

Rockson Adofo