Why Was Rawlings Feared And Kufour Loved?

There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that our former president Kufour is loved. Kufour's name has become almost synonymous to the word respect all over the world. The former president has been receiving so many foreign invitations for all sorts of activities that, he is traveling more than ever before. World renowned universities want the former president to come in and lecture their students. Also various charity organizations around the globe, want his views on how to operate successfully in Africa. Kings and queens consider it an honor to dine, and wine with this ex Ghanaian leader. It seems to me that Kufour did something good. In fact, the awards have been so many that, I doubt if the former president has got enough room to keep them all in. Indeed, if the world loves you, then it truly does love you. But if it doesn't, then you're in serious trouble.

Rawlings is also one of our former presidents, only he is less esteemed than Kufour. It seems to me that nobody really cares that much about the man. The invitations are few and the insults many. He is a hero to some and to others a mere zero. Foreign leaders avoid him like a plague. His speeches are dissected and ridiculed by the media. His enemies are hell-bent on destroying him for no apparent reason whatsoever. His non accomplishments as a former head of state are often given precedence to his accomplishments. Indeed, it seems that only posterity would redeem Jerry John Rawlings. Then again, a true prophet or prophetess never gets his/her rightful due, until sweet death weds him/her. That said, I harbor a strong suspicion that the reason why the world shuns Rawlings is because, the world fears him. The man speaks the truth and nothing but the truth. The truth they say, shames the devil.

Now, why is Kufour loved so much internationally? What precisely did he do to gain so much adoration and respect? Moreover, what did he do differently from the rest? Surely, there must be something which he did right, otherwise all these foreign accolades wouldn't have been forthcoming. So what exactly did he do? The answer to this question is pretty simple. Kufour sold Ghana out. And how did he do this? Well, let me elaborate on this. The responsibility of building a nation, or even any sustainable socio-economy has to be done on the backs of the citizens living in the country. In other words, you don't offer contracts to foreign companies to build your country for you, when you've got unemployment rate soaring in your own country. It just don't work like that. Some would call this treason. Then again, it's treason in and of itself. And this is precisely what Kufour and his NPP party did. They betrayed Ghana's working class for an invitation from the White House, and the Buckingham Palace.

Undoubtedly, most foreign companies doing business in Ghana, did enrich themselves extremely well under Kufour's presidency. Most of our fertile agricultural lands were bought by some of these companies for nearly nothing. Our sports stadiums and transportation roads were constructed by foreign companies, who demanded a huge sum of money to construct them. The sad thing is, some of our local companies had the expertise, and the manpower to do this work cheaply. Unfortunately, Kufour's NPP government deliberately bypassed them for the Chinese, the Indians, the Americans and the British. How did this help the economy? Well, not a bit. As a result, the country's unemployment rate sky-rocketed. Thus compelling some of the citizens to engage in armed robbery, Sakawa, prostitution and all sorts of indecent activities to make ends meet.

Indeed, Kufour did put Ghana and her people last on his agenda. He promoted foreign interests on Ghana's soil, and got his due recognition from them when his presidency ended. Kufour is simply a Judas, who is still collecting his thirty pieces of sliver in the form of awards and international accolades for betraying us. No wonder that the Sudanese magnate Mo Ibrahim, who awards ex African leaders annually for good governance, and also happens to be a close friend of Rawlings decided that Kufour is not worth his cash. Then again, who could blame Mo Ibrahim? After all, had Kufour won this $ 5 million prize award, he would've spent this money on shiny Giorgio Armani suits, shoes and jewelery to compensate for the physical beauty, which he obviously was born without.