Ghana’s turn-coat former military dictator Jerry John Rawlings may have myriads of admirers but none indeed a friend let alone a true friend. Not only has terror-inclined Rawlings exhibited dictatorial regime incident to being forced by powers beyond his control to allow for multi-party parliamentary democracy to prevail in Ghana, he was in fact an inexorable tyrant and a despot with a continuum of thoughts of anarchy that will give birth to tyranny and despotism culminating in fear and slavery.
In reference to his stance on the Yendi crisis, this is a born rebel consecrated to feud and anarchy who has continually played on the minds and intellect of the Northerners, that he knew the perpetrators of the feud, backed by a video evidence to be provided to a constituted Court to secure conviction of all nocent parties involved. In spite of his evidence at hand, wheedling John Rawlings failed to submit any such vital evidence by way of assisting the security agencies and the prosecution in their investigations and retrial of the 60 supposed suspects. Unfazed, characteristic of pseudologues as he has proved to be, he won’t bow his head in shame and shut-up but would persist in removing all doubts about his evil may occur nature by playing the blame game and accusing presiding judges as Kufuor-made, who know not justice. So be it as Kufuor judges, Kufuor hasn’t murdered any judges let alone in cold-blood, but Rawlings et al have murdered their judges with further intent to ‘kill the cats’, as to who and what those “cats” are, we all live to see. It may be recalled that after the 28th June 1982 murder of the judges and Major Aquah Rtd, Jerry Rawlings, like the proverbial mischievous fish that muddies the waters upstream and rushes downstream to ask to find who has done it, bemoaned and passionately appealed for witnesses to come forward and help in investigation leading to arrest of the culprits, knowing very well that himself and Kojo Tsikata had plotted and sent the murder squad to their set targets to have the job done. The records are here in London. Rawlings must therefore retrospect into the part he played in instigating the Ya-Na and his troops to square-up with his opponents for the gun battle. Similarly, on the Konkomba-Nanumba war, Rawlings should recollect who fanned the flame and also supplied arms for the onslaught. Security Forces who were deployed as peace-keepers were despatched with arms and ammunition but returned with none at a time when John Rawlings was the President of Ghana.
When 34 women were murdered in Accra for whatever purpose and laid in supinated posture in all cases after their killing during the governance of John Rawlings, for only God knows why his security forces could not investigate who the supposed culprit/s were, unashamedly he claimed to know who the murderers were and specifically said some of the appointed ministers under President Kufuor were responsible. Up to this day this liar Rawlings has not been able to name the supposed nocent killers who may happen to be his hated opponents and a revelation that could give him his much needed political advantage. On his human relations, like all known dictators who get rid of all and sundry who push them up the ladder, John Rawlings, in spite of his so-called charisma cannot not point to a single sincere friend apart from his birds of a feather spouse. Who ever thought that Jerry John “Rottings” would cut his nose to spite his own face in relation to his cosset John Mills to the extent of even calling his alder-liefest choice of candidate names inapt of a Nation’s president? Where are the Boakye Djans, the Baa-Achamfuors, Atiemo and Mensah-Gbedemahs etc? How and why could they have un-repiningly isolated him without any compunction at their deserting him in spite of the complotting and participating in atrocities they have committed which others see as National heroism? In his drunken, lustful and passionate disposition, Rawlings, like all tyrants is an incomparable and detestable dastard bully who is never the friends of anybody. To be precise, as may apply to all tyrannical rulers, it is not only Ghana and Ghanaians who have suffered from John Rawlings as functus officio tyrant, he himself is the unhappiest of men though he has amassed untold wealth, privileges and prestige for himself et al, that is not the epitome of happiness. Throughout world history, tyrants and despots vastly outnumber equable and magnanimous rulers of temperance; such tyrants become objects of hate and fear but never of love and admiration. If there are exceptions, if there are people or citizens who willingly submit to or even deserve the yoke of despotism and tyranny, they are in the judgement of civilised thinking minds, politically primitive. Not only is this bullying enfant gâté a mischievous psychopath, he is also unpleasing, for if even Victor Smith, his fidus Achates could not please and win the heart of Jerry John Rottings, then Kofi Adams must consider himself a tiny soluble lump of salt on his master’s mind, full of insatiable sea of options to grace his amour proper; because to serve Rawlings to his appreciation, in his omniscience and omnicompetence, one must live and behave according to the strait-jacket whims and caprices of only God knows Most Pious, Most Graceful, Most Upright, Most merciful, Most Caring, Most intelligent, Holier than thou, Mr Fix-it Rawlings. Ghanaians neither deserve to be terrorised nor tyrannised yet the incipient anarchic under-tone demagoguery of a mishallowed Jerry John “Rottings” is capable of dragging Ghana into a state of anomie. It is rather very unfortunate that many of our brother and sisters on whom he usually plays his appeal to the gallery tricks have either removed or lost their thinking caps so unable to decipher how un-Ghanaian, how insincere and untruthful, how divisive and how treacherous John Rawlings is to the Ghanaian society. Each and his/her choice for even if terrors like Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin whose mortal remains were removed from the Red Square and dumped elsewhere, Nero and Napoleon etc have their admirers, it is no wonder ami-less John Rawlings has millions of fans and admirers because some persons think from the wrong side of their brain.
On Rawlings temperance, most historic figures and so-called heroes are people of strong passions of ambition and of pride, driven by desires which tend to be limitless, few exemplify moderation, stop short of excess in anger in their striving for power and pleasure. In the tragedies of Euripides and perhaps those of Sophocles and Aeschylus, they embody the hubris or pride which is common to all tragic figures in some particular form of intemperance such as the boundless hate of Medea or the abstemiousness of Hippolytus. However, modern human humane democratic social settings call for tolerance and conciliation such that he/she who falls short of the virtues of tolerance and conciliation can best be described as primitive, hence unfit for any form of political leadership. With the art of ad hominem allocution at his fingertips, terror-inclined John Rawlings is the most economical on truth, honesty and sincerity, for if he were to be truthful, honest and sincere to himself and to those who cannot be tired by waiting to listen to cooked crap stories, it would be extremely difficult for liars of his calibre to concoct their ad misericordiam stories for consumption by simple minds who neither have the courage to challenge or question nor the wisdom to distinguish truth from falsehood but have the abundance of serenity to accept anything even the unwholesome and deleterous. Though truth is such a complex issue, interestingly, Dr Samuel Johnson distinguishes between moral truth which consists in the obligation to say what we mean and physical truth which depends not just on the veracity of what we say but the validity of what we mean. From this analysis, if truth, viewed socially requires a person’s words to be a faithful representation of what is in mind, then truth in the mind must conform to reality. Truth therefore appears to be one of the most elusive elements to mankind. This is the reason why there are broken relationships, homes etc and indeed the reason why Ghanaian society can be so divided that there is no clear road map to achieving success in development. On justice, John Rawlings poses to Ghanaians as Aristides the Athenian statesman and embodiment of justice yet he understands little about justice. He is understandably one of the most venal characters in Ghana that will go down in history, having led the most corrupt and tyrannical regimes in Ghana. In his interpretation of justice it is the exponents of might who wield power against the exponents of right as in the game of power politics. Though justice is legally defined as the constant will to render to each person what is his/her due, Rawlings mind-set of justice in Ghana divorced from all juridical processes and based on Justice according as would favour himself and his associates in spite of all their evil deeds. Rawlings believes in palm tree justice where he could decree solo or with a few like-thinking psychopaths and order murder spree of all his opponents. If Rawlings of all people is moaning about justice, injustice and corruption, he should purge himself first, followed by his wife Kunadu Agyemang, then his party before anything and anybody else. In his chafing complex of envy and under-achievement, he can only attack those whom he cannot hold a candle to just to obliterate their image and achievements. If therefore in spite of lies about Yendi and 34 women murdered, he has evidence about thieving officials in the Kufuor administration, we are waiting for his evidence however not based on his envious and spiteful dark imaginings mentality but that of a sane and reasonable mind.
Finally on democracy, the man himself is oblivious of democratic tenets so he does not understand it. Rawlings became Ghana’s governor not because he had any extraordinary characteristics or virtues of any sort but because he was a soldier whom others seized power and made him their leader, so all he can claim is powers of contention and ambition. In such circumstances of military dictatorial timocracy, honour is divorced from virtue and wisdom which are the qualifications requisite for public office. Though Rawlings strongly believes in Soviet-style tyrannical dictatorship, in order to whip-up the sentiments of the faex populi, he proclaims ochlocratic isocracy as a grass root participatory democracy yet the base elements mean nothing to him and play no recognised role except as expletives as was seen in the era of PDCs and WDCs etc and currently in his concept of assemblymen/women.
Jerry John Kwashie Rawlings is indeed a mischief in Ghanaian society who juggles and massages the minds of not only the uninformed and ignorant but also some opportunistic savants for his selfish ends to a future or near-future detriment of our dear Ghana. It’s about time people realised that he has a mental defect of pseudologia fantastica, hence his incessant lying to create division, hatred and panic. If after all these lies he could do justice to telling only one truth in his life time, that could probably save his credibility in the international world before his several attempts at plunging Ghana into a state of uncertainty and discontent. As to whether he is a true Ghanaian or Ghanaian by accident is yet another thing. He is indeed a terribly mischievous child from birth, always spiteful with dark imaginings occupying his thoughts.
Adreba Kwaku Abrefa Damoa, LLB; MPhil (London) London UK
