REMEMBERING LATE COMRADE AND PRESIDENT, JERRY JOHN RAWLINGS
TWO YEARS ON – REMEMBERING LATE COMRADE AND PRESIDENT, JERRY JOHN RAWLINGS
BY COMRADE MARTIN A. B. K. AMIDU
Our late Comrade and President Rawlings, the people of this country whom you loved so much and died for have been led into an economic mess, suffering, and poverty which is worse than what led you to risk your life to save this country and give it a viable constitution that has lasted for three decades.
I feel vindicated in my assertion about you that:
“In the line of Ghanaian and African statesmen who have graced our political history in my adult life, none has rendered such incomparable service, not only to his country but to the Pan Africanist movement, the African liberation struggle, the African continent, in general, and the world at large. None has striven so mightily in the sincere defense of truth and justice, and none has done more to uphold the standards of our national honour free from greed and corruption. Sure! Jerry John Rawlings was a hard taskmaster, but he was tolerant and magnanimous. He was the sort of man who drew the best out of all his subordinates, each of whom was proud to serve him to the utmost capacity.”
You know the events that intervened to interrupt the completion of my critique of the traitorous book to your qualities as a statesman and a leader. I assured Arikpo and you that I would complete the critique of the lies contained in that traitorous book after the Agyapa Corruption Risk Assessment Report. Then came your exit on 12 November 2020, which was then followed suddenly by Arikpo joining you in January 2022. The balance of the critique will indeed be completed as promised.
The core and original members committed to your ideals of probity and accountability which underpinned the National Democratic Congress (NDC) you founded (including former Members of Parliament, former Ministers, and cadres of the revolution who served under you) have either been dismissed, suspended, ignored, or sidelined and the NDC has become a mirror image of the New Patriotic Party as property grabbing democracy.
The Constitution you birthed has now been reduced to an instrument of competition for political power to expropriate the wealth belonging to the masses and not for the welfare of citizens. Pretenders to your legacy now actively use the machinery of the NDC for that purpose, contrary to the ideals that informed the June 4 and 31 December Revolutions and formed the core values of the 1992 Constitution. The 2024 Elections could be lost just as you predicted for the 2020 Elections, without a return to the original ideals of the NDC.
Unfolding events are proving that there is no President under the Fourth Republican Constitution that comes near you in merit or who equals you in importance when it comes to contributing to the sustenance of democracy and the rule of law.
Comrade Rawlings, the motions of history are proving you to be one of those rare gems of this land who will never pass from the minds of men but will live in their hearts, so long as Ghana endures because of the great qualities of your life.
This nation received great inspiration from your splendid courage, integrity, high moral character, and your matchless charisma and eloquence.
As long as some of us live, we shall uphold your works and deeds of transparency, probity, and accountability in the service of the people of Ghana whom you loved so much.
MARTIN A.B.K. AMIDU
The interview of Mr. Kenneth Kuranchie on Joy News’ PM Express with Evan Mensah to dispel the credible perception that he brought the action as a camouflage to “seeking a third term for President Mahama” is a hard sell by him as I have demonstrated in this discourse. His action solicits the Supreme Court to usurp the expression of the will of the people at a national referendum with the substitution of a judicial decision contrary to the clear dictates of the 1992 Constitution. We the People can never be deceived by subterfuges!
The continued political witch-hunt against Ken Ofori-Atta by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Government of Ghana through sections of the rented Ghanaian media any time he prevailed in defending his rights under the INTERPOL and the US Immigration laws is nauseating and shameful.
The public is entitled to know the reasons Ms. Justice Akuffo assigned for her resignation to enable us to determine what the government had done to warrant the unprecedented step of a former Chief Justice resigning from the Council of State in the history of the 1992 Constitution. The Government also owes the people of Ghana an explanation for the delay in disclosing and informing the public of the tendering of her resignation.
Every election the NDC has won under the 1992 Constitution has consistently been based on promises to the electorate to implement policies anchored on the core values of probity, accountability, transparency, and social justice underpinning the 4 June 1979 Revolution and Constitution of the NDC: the 1992, 1996, 2008, 2012, and 2024 elections speak for themselves. The NDC’s ability to win the 2028 elections will depend on how the electorate perceives the party’s commitment to these values. It is too early for sycophancy, gloating, and flaunting of awards about successes when one remembers the adulations of the early years of the Akufo-Addo government.
Kissi Agyebeng has exposed his own incompetence and vindictiveness as the Special Prosecutor to the entire world in the manner in which he handled the allegations of corruption made by Martin Kpebu against him and the OSP he supervises. The consequence has been the massive public disapproval of his conduct in unlawfully arresting and detaining Martin Kpebu with the draconian bail condition of the production of a landed property in Martin Kpebu’s own name.
The passing of Madam Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings (Madam or Madam Rawlings) on 23 October was as unexpected, and heart wrenching as it was most shocking. There was no indication of illness or medical distress. Ghana lost her first and only true heroine of the 4 June and 31 December Revolutions, and under the Fourth Republican Constitution. May Madam Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings’ passing be the beginning of real reconciliation and remorse for the mistreatments of the past.
The inerasable truth is that Dr. Bawumia is not the first incumbent Vice President and presidential candidate to concede defeat to his opponent under the 1992 Constitution to reduce electoral tensions in an atmosphere charged with suspicion of the ruling government intending to rig presidential elections.
With a vote of no confidence in both the President Nana Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government and the Speaker Bagbin-led Parliament on 7 December 2024, We-the-People who have proven our capability to take our destiny into our own hands must remain ever vigilant against further abuses during the balance of the tenure of the President and the 8th Parliament.
President-elect, John Dramani Mahama, I congratulate you with all my mind, heart, and soul for your perseverance and for this victory that will allow you to make a positive and beneficial impact on the lives of the ordinary citizen on the streets as President of the Republic of Ghana. There is great enthusiasm and hope in the air for the people of Ghana, the ECOWAS sub-region and Africa in general for the peaceful election and change of government at the ballot box as portending an African renaissance of good governance under your leadership.
Election 2024 is done and Mother Ghana has won. I am confident that the moment came yesterday for our nation Ghana to decide in the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side. We had some cause, and some great decision to make yesterday which we have made. The election yesterday does not conclude the struggle in the strife of truth with falsehood that offers our nation the bloom or blight. The struggle with and for the people, however, continues unabated until our destiny of victory is achieved.
I cannot as a person born in the then NT recommend Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as a person with the trait of honesty, integrity and selfless service exhibited by our forebearers from the NT to the Republic of Ghana to be elected on 7 December 2024 as President symbolizing a representation of northerners on an NPP ticket for Ghana. Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is not only an opportunist and pretender, he has lost track of the high moral character associated with his own biological family and the forebearers of Northern Ghana.
The corrupt and looting government machinery of Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia are so power drunk that they only see the ordinary Ghanaian as a zombified idiot whose vote can be bought after dangling a few television pictures, news broadcast, and other media propaganda of completed and uncompleted projects to becloud his memory. Let us defend the Constitution by demanding probity and accountability, now on 7 December 2024! Let us defend the Constitution by demanding probity and accountability, now on 7 December 2024!
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts! The Ghana Police Service would not have been selective and overlooked extending an invitation for such an engagement to the Media Coalition as the professional umbrella bodies of the media industry in Ghana representing the interests and concerns of media practitioners and media houses in Ghana if the invitation and proposals were actuated by the national interest and not a politically partisan election agenda under the smokescreen of impartial policing.
The deep polarization and intense emotions generated by the governance of the country under the Akufo-Addo/ Mahamudu Bawumia administration shows that the future stability of the 1992 Constitution is dependent on how free, fair, and transparent the 7 December 2024 elections are seen to have been managed and conducted by all the public institutions entrusted with supervising the elections. The time to defend the 1992 Constitution against election interference is NOW!
Convening parliament for two days only may be convenient for the finances of the Members of Parliament, otherwise I see no rational reason for wasting the public purse just a few days to the 2024 elections. Apart from providing a provisional budget for the incoming government on 7 January 2025, there is no emergency necessitating the Speaker wasting public funds to abridge the fourteen days to recall Parliament before 7 December 2024 for a two-day session.
We the People delegated our sovereign power to the incumbent government at the polls on 7 December 2020. It is, therefore, imperative that the President and his Vice-President, the anointed successor, prove themselves as having provided the most competent leadership during their tenure by transparently accounting to We the People for how they managed our security in the past eight years and still brought the country to the Bawku crisis with nine other violent conflict points in several other regions before the vote on 7 December 2024.
Bawumia needs to move away from the Kamala Harris rhetorical style of campaigning and speak directly to the public on his security and intelligence capabilities and policies that will bring the numerous violent conflicts throughout the country where curfews have been imposed under control and stop the unwarranted and needless killing which the failure of the Government has unleashed on the country within its tenure.
Just in four years, Ghanaians are missing you as the most honest Ghanaian leader of integrity under the 1992 Constitution, a hard taskmaster, with a heart of tolerance and magnanimity. We are still looking beyond the horizon and wondering when salvation will come to Ghanaians again under the 1992 Constitution you gave to our homeland Ghana. I salute you Comrade, and assure you that as long as we live on this earth we shall continue to fight, fight, and fight for the egalitarian ideals that underpinned our revolution.
A Chief Justice of any country who does not know the history and geography of her country and acts discriminatorily, unfairly, and without candour in the performance of her administrative and supervisory functions is clearly unfit to be the head of the administration of an independent judiciary. The empanelling of justices by her even to sit as justices of the superior courts to exercise the judicial power would be open to and actuated by arbitrariness, capriciousness, and incompetence to infect the independence of the courts as adjudication institutions.
The fact that the acting President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, stands to be a beneficiary of the Bawku Traditional Area crisis precipitated due to the indolence of the Government only two months to the 2024 elections should the registered voters in the six constituencies in the UER be unable to exercise their franchise freely and fairly, comes into focus with his inaction as acting President during the October 2024 conflict period.
But for the folly of the NDC and the Speaker of Parliament, the House would have been in session and holding the Chief Justice’s administrative action of closing the High Court and other courts in Bolgatanga and its environs to account for her actions on the spurious reasons assigned and the unprecedented nature of her action in the history of Ghana taken so close to an election on 7 December 2024 that must be free, fair, and transparent under the 1992 Constitution.
The Kabuki dance of writing a letter numbered PS/DC/24/234 dated 18 October 2024 to the Registrar of the Supreme Court returning Court processes to the Registrar and applying to the same Court to set aside its ruling and orders is over. The Speaker has no authority to hold the nation to ransom by obstructing the functioning of the constitutional system or any of the arms of government during the pendency of a constitutional matter before the Supreme Court. The Speaker needs to show cognitive maturity now!
The Speaker of Parliament needs to think long before side stepping the orders of the Supreme Court through subterfuges to preside over pushing the 1992 Constitution into the inferno of implosion instead of defending it as his oath of office and the Constitution demands. The stability and survival of the Fourth Republic of Ghana must take precedence over transactional politics, opportunism, and adventurism by groups of political elites bent on serving parochial and short-term self interests instead of the interest of the citizens of Ghana.
The 2024 elections in Ghana must be fought and won on the integrity, honesty and policy programmes of the various candidates and their political parties. The unnecessary hyping of national tensions and promotion of violence which has the propensity to implode the 1992 Constitution just for the sake of raw power for its own sake without the interests of the citizens at heart must stop. Beware of 4 June 1979! Beware of 31 December 1981! None of the two major political parties will win when they undermine and facilitate the implosion of the 1992 Constitution.
I exercised my right as a citizen of Ghana to bring the petition myself and I have no regrets for doing so despite the rigged outcome smacking of the exercise of the relics of imperial medieval powers. I am, however, confident that history shall absolve me when the content of my petition and the review submitted by the Chief Justice become available to the public for its evaluation. When the vendetta and trials of mere suspects in the court of public opinion start again, the utility of my petition will be remembered.
I am not a coward or a liar in the terms of the question posed by Michela Wrong in her seminal book on corruption – “It’s Our Turn to Eat.” Like German Reich Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, I am quite happy to be called a coward because my strategic and tactical objectives are beyond their comprehension. Kofi Attor, the Speaker of Parliament’s Chief of Staff, also knows that I am not a liar. As a shot across the bow, Joy FM and Kofi Attor may wish to read the tip of the iceberg reported on: Alban Bagbin admits he is corrupt (audio) - Graphic Online. The evidence has always been in plain view all over the internet.
The NDC can close its eyes to their self-confessed corrupt Speaker refusing to divulge his ailment for which the taxpayer doles out millions of cedis and foreign currency in Dubai but can use the “dire need of funds because of the economic crisis” as a reason for rejecting the tax waivers it has similarly approved under the NDC and NPP Governments until the dawn of the next elections in a few months time on 7 December 2024. Every patriot has a duty to ensure that the 1992 Constitution is defended, and the electorate is not Zombified into merely voting for rhetoric instead of on credible and cogent facts, and evidence meriting their votes.
The possibility that in addition to whatever health problems of John Mahama may be known to the Ahwois and their cohort, is there also a kitchen cabinet plan to send John Mahama to sleep early, like Professor Mills, should he perchance win the 2024 elections, to make assurance double sure that their enterprise for their surrogate to become President before 2028 and, therefore, face no opposition for the nomination as the 2027 NDC flagbearer?
The NDC and the NPP appear to be so invested in their opposing positions and the desire to use the dynamics of gay rights to win political power that they have not stopped to think about the consequences of their actions to the sustenance of constitutionalism, democracy, and the rule of law. The elders in the room who could have sought a compromise appear to have taken sides leading to both sides engaging in a dialogue of the deaf.
“Self-preservation is the first law of nature”, and it would be political suicide for Nana Akufo-Addo to assent to the LGBTQ+ Bill being passed by Parliament into law. Nana Akufo-Addo’s long game, the aura he has built around himself as a democrat in the Western tradition, and all the ingratiation efforts he has invested in, will come to nought should he assent to the Bill upon passage. The fact that other citizens knew the difficulty the Bill was going to face when it got to the desk of the President was articulated by no less a person than Minority Leader Ato Forson.