By: Amuzu Godfred
It has become so obvious that no one else can compete with former President Rawlings on the scale of hypocrisy and doublespeak in Ghana apart from his wife Nana Konadu Agyeman 'Abrewa' Rawlings.
The level of double standards and sheer absurdity lately exhibited by Mr. Rawlings is totally unmatched and cannot be explained by any rational logic, except to assume that Mr. Rawlings seem to take all Ghanaians for fools.
Otherwise, why will Mr. Rawlings keep insulting the sensibilities of Ghanaians with his double standard, empty and hypocritical rhetoric?
Now he claims that all those who call themselves Nkrumaists in Ghana are criminals. These 'criminals' obviously includes more than three quarters of the people who today consider themselves NDC members.
Many of those who helped Rawlings run Ghana for so many years including Capt. Kojo Tsikata, PV Obeng, Justice Annan etc were all at a point part of Kwame Nkrumah's young pioneers brigade and who still pride themselves today as Nkrumaists.
The late President Atta Mills who was chosen by Rawlings himself to lead the NDC was a self-proclaimed Nkrumaist. Former national security cordinator Larry Gbevlo-Lartey is an avowed Nkrumaist. President John Mahama's father was a minister of state under the Nkrumah government. And John Mahama himself is a professed Nkrumaist. Indeed apart fom those few in the NDC who consider themselves as cadres of the Rawlings led revolutions/coups of 79/81, the majority of the intellectuals who have been the bedrock of the NDC's social democratic movement are adherents of Kwame Nkrumah.
So when Mr. Rawlings says those who claim to believe in Nkrumah are criminals and have failed to implement any policy relative to Nkrumah's ideas, it is obvious that he is referring to these people who include late President Mills and current President John Mahama and members of his government.
It is also obvious that many of these people don't find J.J Rawlings as a leader with any defined ideology or vision worth emulating. Even though he claims to be NDC founder, the vision of Mr. Rawlings appear to be limited to his own image in the mirror.
It appears to worry Mr. Rawlings that members of his own party including NDC leaders call themselves Nkrumaists instead of Rawlings'.
But Should Mr. Rawlings not be blaming himself and perhaps his wife, for his short-sightedness or lack of vision, avarice, accumulated hatred and vindictiveness towards others including those in their graves and the massive crimes of his past which seem to be haunting him to the extent that people are beginning to spread rumors of him losing his mind?
If former President Rawlings indeed had any leadership acumen beyond his empty anti-capitalists rhetoric and charismatic gimmicks, his own founded NDC party followers would not profess to be believers in the late President Kwame Nkrumah.
Many people who have worked with the Rawlings' will tell you that this man and his incorrigible wife only preach virtue but practice vice. Whiles they preach frugality for everyone, they secretly, or maybe not so secretly, amass wealth for themselves and live in luxury.
Whiles the Rawlings' publicly claim to abhor corruption, they turn round an engage in the most stinking deals. And when they call others thieves, murderers and criminals, it is only an attempt to cover and assuage their own blood tainted consciences which has become near-impossible to cleanse during their lifetime.
But what makes Atta Mills, John Mahama and their Nkrumaiats comrades criminals? What crime have they committed? Can their perceived crimes ever surpass that of Rawlings and his wife?
Or is it because, as Rawlings himself confessed recently, some of these NDC people prevented him from staying much longer in power when Rawlings attempted to perpetuate his reign of terror? Does Mr. Rawlings think that without him Ghana will come to a standstill? Has Ghana not moved on on the right direction since the exit of Rawlings in the year 2000?
At least, none of the leaders who came after Rawlings have stolen, killed, harassed, or seized properties from private individual in Ghana neither have they appropriated state property for themselves and their families. For Mr. Rawlings to falsely claim that things in Ghana today are worse than they were during his time im government simply means that he is stuck in the past and he cannot see Ghana beyond his family's fortunes and insatiable quest for power.
We know the crimes of President Rawlings and his wife Nana Konadu Agyeman - Rawlings. They shot and killed and maimed innocent Ghanaians with the lame excuse that the people were 'angry' and called for blood to flow. Even though, Rawlings remorselessly continues to justify the calous and avoidable killings and brutalities of his reign. Rather than apologizing for his sordid past, Rawlings remains adamant that his reign of terror were the glory days of Ghana. He insists it was always necessary to let people's blood flow.
The people were angry in the year 2000 but President Kufuour didn't kill people. The people were angry in the year 2008 but Mills didn't kill people. The people are equally angry today but President Mahama hasn't killed people.
These are the few good men after Kwame Nkrumah. They have tried to bring about change legitimately without blood shed even when the people are angry.
Rawlings didn't only kill, he also stole state properties as well as private properties for himself and his wife.
Today, the chiefs and people of Nsawam Adoagyire are chasing Rawlings and his accomplice wife Nana Konadu Rawlings and pleading with Parliament and the President to reclaim their several thousand acres of land which were seized by PNDC decrees for the state but ended up as personal property of the Rawlings'.
That is criminal. The brutal murder of the three high court judges is still fresh on our minds.
Evidence abounds that the key to the vehicle that was used by the murderers of those judges were found on the dinning table of Mrs. Rawlings. So either Mr. and Mrs. Rawlings murdered those judges or they sent the assassins to do the dirty job on their behalf.
Those judges are still crying for justice, yet we have judges today who still play sycophants to Mr. Rawlings and try to help him and his family perpetuate injustice and illegality in Ghana.
Since independence, no leader in Ghana have had as much blood on their hands as Rawlings and none of them have behaved as though they are the only ones who can rule Ghana.
They have tried to bring about change without brutality. And yet, none of these good men have pleased Mr. Rawlings and his greedy wife Nana Konadu Rawlings.
It now appears that the blood of the innocent are haunting former President Rawlings, which is making him behave like a king without a crown roaming in town without followers and accusing others of his own crimes.
Why, the same Rawlings agonized and demonized late President Mills for four years all because Prof. Mills refused to shed blood of NPP members who are also Ghanaians. He wanted the NPP government officials jailed to death. Rawlings has continued to berate Prof. Mills and his memory even from his grave. He has called him a 'shallow Professor' 'weak minded' etc but for what?
Easy. Because, according to Rawlings, Mills let the NPP officials including Nana Akuffo Addo off the hook despite their murder of Yaa Naa Yakubu Andani of Dagbon, Issah Molbila and others. He also alleged that the NPP government functionaries were thieves and had stolen so much of Ghana's resources and therefore deserved to be jailed by Prof. Mills. But as Rawlings himself continue to repeat, President Mills decided along the lines of his 'Father for all' government to 'Let things be' so that his government can attract donor support.
The same Rawlings today, is saying that Nana Akuffo Addo is a much bolder leader and a greater man than John Mahama. The same Rawlings today is now tacitly campaigning against NDC and John Mahama with the hope of giving an advantage to the NPP and Nana Addo.
If the NPP were murderers and criminals during their reign, what has changed? If the NDC today are criminals, why is Rawlings today pushing his own daughter to parliament through the NDC? Does Rawlings want his daughter to join the band of criminals?
Is it that he is confused or Rawlings just wants to dig his own grave?
What is more criminal than seizing state and private property and handing them over to yourself through your wife Nana Konadu Agyeman - Rawlings and the 31st DWM?
What is more criminal than murdering innocent people and putting indemnity clauses into the constitution to avoid prosecution?
What is more criminal than seizing local businesses from Ghanaians and handing them over to foreigners?
What is more criminal than stealing gold bars from our mines for personal keeps?
What is more criminal than taking millions of US dollars from foreign donors to construct drains in Accra only to put it in your private pockets whiles people are allowed to die yearly in the city from needless floods?
What is more criminal than taking houses belonging to private citizens and giving them to your wife to use as private offices and guests houses ?
Former President Rawlings has done all these and more, yet it is he who still has the hypocritical audacity to call other leaders criminals?
Does Mr. Rawlings think that Ghanaians are all afflicted by multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease?
Who does Mr. Rawlings think he is deceiving when he lights that June4 flame every year to try to cover up the crimes of murders and stealing and brutality of his time? The hypocrisy of the June4 celebrations which most NDC members have come to ignore must be exposed.
The flame means nothing but a gimmick to deceive the few unsuspecting members of the public who lack knowledge of the history of AFRC/PNDC brutal regime.
Prof. Mills refused to partake in the hypocrisy of Rawlings in lighting that flame every year because he knew it was meaningless and an insult to the memory of the many Ghanaians who needlessly died for Rawlings to stay in power for so many years.
President Mahama has ignored the past of Rawlings to establish his own democratic legacy. He will have nothing to do with that bloody legacy. He prefers to call himself an Nkrumaist.
And because of this, Rawlings wants everybody to believe that John Mahama and more than 60% of his government and party members are criminals, corrupt and thieves.
Rawlings even said that it was President Mahama and his government who covered up for Alfred Woyome and set him free by refusing to make Betty Mould Iddrisu a witness at his trial all in an effort to avoid implicating his accomplices in the NDC government and party.
Yet Alfred Woyome used to work and travel around the world with Rawlings. Even today, Rawlings cannot explain what happened to all the state enterprises, cooperations and factories which he and his government took from the state and shared among his cronies including himself in the name of so-called economic diversification.
Rawlings used state funds to run a private NGO called the 31st DWM owned by his wife Nana Konadu Agyeman - Rawlings. All state and private property he and his wife stole were then made a property of this phantom NGO.
Private and public lands, factories, houses, even bank accounts and cash have been appropriated by Mr. Rawlings and his wife using PNDC decrees and hiding them under the cover of the 31st DWM.
This phantom NGO was and remains a decoy for hiding all the stolen state and private property for the sole benefit of the Rawlings'. Without state support today, the 31st DWM has lost all its fake credibility. There is now only one member of the so-called women's rights NGO alive and that is Nana Konadu Agyeman - Rawlings herself.
Funny enough, people who call themselves NDC are still so blinded and continue to worship Rawlings and his family.
Take for example the NDC people blindly following Zanetor Rawlings. What is Zanetor Rawlings about? What are her sycophantic followers about? What is her position on all these reckless utterances of her father who co-founded the NDP and her mother who is the NDP flag bearer?
Like her seemingly delusional father, Zanetor Rawlings goes about talking about restoring the old values. What old values is she talking about? The values of harassment? Values of intimidation? Values of pretending to be holier than the pope of Vatican?
Why hasn't Zanetor taken any positions on President John Mahama and his legacy? Why hasn't she found it necessary to try to extol the virtues and articulate the programs of President John Mahama? Why is Zanetor acting and carrying herself about as though she is only interested in going to parliament but careless about whether or not John Mahama maintains power in 2017?
Why has she never been seen in a John Mahama T-shirt except her own T-shirts? Is she with her father and her mother who are out to destroy the NDC and hand over power to the NPP or is she with John Mahama and the NDC?
Let Zanetor Rawlings take a position that independent of her parents, if she indeed serious about going to parliament.
The sycophants must simply stop running after Zanetor Rawlings who cannot take a single position on a single issue except to ride on the back of her outdated family name.
Zanetor has no business in running as NDC candidate for parliament if she cannot take a position to delink herself from the greed and entitlement mentality of her seemingly delusional parents who think they are the only ones who Can rule Ghana? Or is Zanetor a Trojan horse to be used by her parents for the ultimate annihilation of the NDC?
Now that Mr. Rawlings is confessing that he wanted to adopt the strategy of Vladimir Putin in Russia to perpetuate himself in power in Ghana for several more years, it has now been confirmed that he actually believes that he is the best thing that ever happened to Ghana.
His less self-conceited PNDC colleagues must have seen through his demagoguery at the time. Rawlings wants us to believe that Ghana today is worse than during his time in office. Perhaps if Mr. Rawlings and his wife had not squandered the millions of dollars meant for development of Ghana including the construction of the Accra drains, the needless deaths of the hundreds of people on June 3 2015 in Accra during flooding could have been avoided. And Ghana would have been better off today.
Mr. Rawlings must allow the few good men in leadership today including President John Mahama bring about change without his needless, and hypocritical rhetorics.
And if Mr. Rawlings wants NDC people to follow him instead of Kwame Nkrumah, he must learn from Nkrumah's frugality by purging himself and his family of chronic greed and return all the stolen state and private assets including lands, houses, factories, cars, gold bars and so on which he, his greedy wife and family have depended on to live like Arabian kings since his retirement from government in the year 2000. That will be a first step in regaining any iota of credibility in the eyes of the public.
Until then, Rawlings and his wife will remain 'barking dogs' without teeth to bite. And if Rawlings thinks today that Nana Akuffo Addo is a great man and prefer the NPP and him as President to John Mahama and the NDC that he founded, let him wait until his wife, is dragged back to court, sentenced and jailed for all their crimes against the people of Ghana by an Akuffo Addo government. His indemnity clauses did not cover his greedy wife, in case his memory has failed him.
It is only then that his greedy eyes will open but it will be too late.
It is in Mr. Rawlings' own interest to desist from continuing to insult the memory of the good old Prof. Atta Mills at the least opportunity. Rawlings must allow Prof. Mills to rest in peace otherwise, what ever that is currently afflicting him and causing his head to shake uncontrollably will only get worse!
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