Let’s document Rawlings’s life and works – Mahama tells NDC

Former President John Dramani Mahama has challenged the NDC to, as a matter of urgency, document the history of the life of the late Jerry John Rawlings as well as his works as a military and civilian leader of Ghana.

“Unless those of us who knew him and worked with him document his life and work for posterity, the historians of the hunter will write that history for us,” Mahama explained.

Mahama continued: “so, two things that we must do as comrades; document the history of his period and his life and works in Ghana’s politics, and even more important that the party he founded, which is a major player in our democratic space, should be strengthened and maintained in order to promote, preserve and protect his legacy.”

Mahama, the flagbearer of the NDC for the 2020 presidential election, made those observations at a symposium organised in memory of JJ Rawlings in Accra.

John Dramani Mahama challenged his party members to identify what holds them together as members of the NDC because their opponents will do everything possible to use money, fear, cohesion to achieve whatever they want.

Mahama emphasised, “The challenge that political parties face that makes the difference between success and failure is how you survive the passing of your founder.”

“The NPP has no founder but they survived, CPP has no founder but CPP is split into so many different political parties. Today our founder has passed, how are we going to maintain the success of continuing this political tradition of holding together?” he quizzed.

Mahama observed that one sure way the party could hold themselves together was to exorcise the sense of selfishness and greed that “made some of us sell our party to our comrades for pittance”.

“We must have a sense of sacrifice and collective responsibility to keep the party intact together in order to protect and preserve the memory of Rawlings,” he stated.

The symposium, organised at the Kama Conference Centre in Labone, a suburb of Accra, forms part of a series of activities planned to commemorate the legacy of former President Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings (Rtd.), whose funeral is taking place this week.

Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings (Rtd.) passed away on Thursday, November 12, 2020, at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital after a short illness.

He was 73-years-old.

He left behind his wife the former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, and four children.