TRIBUTE BY MARTIN AMIDU TO FORMER PRESIDENT RAWLINGS
TRIBUTE BY MARTIN A. B. K. AMIDU TO COMRADE CHAIRMAN AND FORMER PRESIDENT EMERITUS FLT. LT. JERRY JOHN RAWLINGS
I was taken aback on 29th September 2020 when after paying my condolences and expressing my experiential emotions of what a toll the passing of your dear mother could have had on you despite your old age, you told me that: “Chief, it is good it happened now. Chief you people never knew. Two or three years ago I was in bad shape with my health and I feared I would go before her. At least I can now see her off.” I thought this was just one of the usual conversations between friends. With hindsight, I now realize that my dear and respected former PNDC Chairman and former President Emeritus Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings was indeed giving us notice of his impending exit from his earthly assignments after the burial of his dear mother and bidding us goodbye.
After the interment of his dear mother on 24th October 2020 he was compelled by affairs of state to truncate his period of rest to hold a series of mediation sessions with me, then the Special Prosecutor, in his Office in Accra on 27th, 28th, and 29th October 2020. The late former President Emeritus Rawlings adjourned the first session to the next day, the 28th and promised we would have lunch together. He kept his word and invited us to have lunch with him, adding that: “Chief” referring to me, “If you do not eat this lunch, I have arranged for us I will not be happy”. I reluctantly, unmasked and helped myself to lunch with the Great Leader. Others were around for the lunch including his sister Mrs. Judy John Nkansah. With hindsight, was this also in the nature of the last lunch/supper you had arranged in anticipation of your impending ancestral journey? We saw each other in his office briefly the next day, the 29th and he was all hope and assurance that justice and equity for the Ghana was going to result from his mediation efforts on the 30th, the next day.
We could not meet in a face-to-face interaction again because contrary to our agreed expectations I had been compelled to execute one of the teachings of our revolutionary struggle - positive defiance without having warned him about my intentions to avoid any breakdown in any prospect of continuing mediation. I was not exhibiting the skills of being good at playing chess, as I am told you surmised, Comrade Rawlings. I was dead serious to be a loyal, faithful, and true revolutionary comrade serving the interest of the ordinary people of this country for whom you led us to render selfless service during our long years together as comrades and brothers.
I heard the news of your admission at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital on 4th November 2020. Then on the morning of 12th November 2020 somehow and intuitively, I got apprehensive and tried to find out how well you were doing. The prognosis was not gloomy. Then at 10:15 am I received by telephone the shocking and sad news that Ghanaians were yet to hear, from the United Kingdom, while I was in a scheduled meeting in my then Office. My mobile phones started ringing. “Is what I am hearing about former President Rawlings death true? Is it true....? Is it true...?”. My pretense of appearing self-composed despite the shocking and saddening news of your sudden demise to our ancestors could no longer continue during the meeting. I still cannot believe that you have left us, your comrades, so suddenly and put the whole nation in shock and despair.
The handing over of power by an African leader after two four-year terms under a Constitutional regime in Africa which you accomplished is a notable event in the political history of Ghana and Africa. Not all who have been Presidents or Heads of State have been of equal merit, or of at least equal importance. Presidents or Heads of State, like other men, vary in their importance on their generations and history. Some even in their lifetime never raised a ripple on the surface of politics and whose names are now forgotten by all but students of their period. Comrade Rawlings, you are 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.
His indomitable courage, all pervasive-humanity, and love for freedom for every Ghanaian are the qualities of our
under the 1992 Constitution he birthed that will forever make him to remain the most He was the Head of State
of four Governments which encompassed members of all the political persuasions of this country who were willing to serve under him and never was the nation’s trust in a man most amply justified. One such man who served under him as a matter of indisputable fact from an opposing political persuasion succeeded him immediately as President of Ghana on 7th January 2001. Historians in the future will analyze his strategy and tactics, and point, no doubt to his mistakes.
But we who lived through those days and served under him have this advantage over the historians of the future: that we can testify to the inspiration we received from his splendid courage, integrity, high moral character, and his matchless charisma and eloquence. 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 defence 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. Even the traitors who once claimed to be his comrades who hurt him most unjustifiably before his demise attest in their traitorous books to his qualities as a statesman and a leader to whom they and the nation owe gratitude.
At this solemn and trying moment of grief and mourning my compassion and sympathy go out to his Consort and widow, the indefatigable former First Lady and founder of the 31st December Women’s Movement, and co-founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 1992, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, who stood by our departed Great Leader, in rain or shine. My heart goes out to that valiant woman, with famous blood of Ashanti royalty in her veins, who sustained the former Chairman and former President through all his travails and problems and brought up with their charm and beauty the three daughters and a son who mourn their Great father to-day. May the Holy Trinity in our Catholic faith grant her and her children strength to bear their sorrow.
We shared the one Catholic faith and at this sad and solemn moment, I cannot find words in which to bid you goodbye till the resurrection. I am only left to say: Lord grant eternal rest to your son, Jerry John, and let perpetual light shine upon him. O Lord hear my prayer and let my cry come to you. May he rest in peace. Amen!
Great Leader for two decades as a revolutionary leader, and
Constitutionally elected President
famous son of our homeland Ghana.
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.
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.
Comrade Jerry John Rawlings, I salute you and you will continue to live in our hearts amidst the culture of silence in Ghana today. Every day I look beyond the horizon and wonder, when will salvation come to Ghanaians again under the 1992 Constitution you birthed? Say hi to Arikpo (GP. Captain Richard Forjeo (rtd.)), who followed you to eternity at the beginning of 2022. You are deeply missed and most fondly remembered.
“Every day for thief man one day for master”, so the saying goes. The Courts have spoken and exposed the true Anas Aremeyaw Anas. The chickens have at long last come home to roost and to vindicate the contention of this writer since 2014 that Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his Tiger Eye PI are nothing but a scamming entity on the anti-corruption landscape of Ghana parading as anti-corruption crusaders.
The 44th Anniversary of the June 4 uprising is the time for the NDC to decide whether it is still a party founded by President Rawlings or one that has been taken over by the traitors that tried to re-write the history of the PNDC and NDC in the infamous Working with Rawlings. I stand with Rawlings on the occasion of the 44th Anniversary of June 4. One cannot stand with Rawlings and the traitors simultaneously. Take a side. Do not sit on the fence for it may break.
The statistical data demonstrates beyond every doubt that President Rawlings, Dr. Obed Asamoah, and Martin Amidu, the running mate for the 2000 elections delivered their regions resoundingly to the NDC while Professor Mills and his cohort of talkative-only puppet masters doomed his election defeat by failing to deliver their regions to the NDC. The saying is that “monkey no fine but heem mother lakam” so how does the monkey blame others for its abysmal defeat when its own mother voted against and rejected it at the polls?
The real intention of the author, Kwamena Ahwoi, was to paint President Rawlings as an autocrat who did not brook dissent from even his vice president such that Professor Mills was so terrified or afraid of him to engage in a one-on-one discussion with him on the reasons for not accepting Dr. Asamoah as the vice- presidential candidate. The author ended up conveying a picture of Professor Mills as not being his own man. Kwamena Ahwoi was, therefore, solely responsible for the derogatory words – “Mills-Rawlings’ Poodle” and “Vote Mills, Ge JJ free” - that the opponents of the NDC used to describe Professor Mills after his acceptance speech at his Ho coronation.
The author, Kwamena Ahwoi, tried to use Working with Rawlings to re-write the history of the events of the period to distance his cohort of puppet masters and him from the decision by the NDC to endorse and acclaim Professor Mills as the NDC’s presidential candidate for the 2000 election. Consequently, he constructed his narrative of the events in such a manner as to make his cohort of puppet masters of Professor Mills and he to emerge the heroes of those two difficult years while President Rawlings’ wife and Rawlings together with others were cast as the villains.
Those who aspire to genuinely crusade against corruption as investigative journalists, and to lead this nation in the exercise of the executive power ought to show an example in upholding the integrity of the judicial process instead of lending their voices to the cohorts of a losing party to scandalize and bring the administration of justice into disrepute. Remember, there is abundant documentary and other evidence of who created and facilitated Anas A. Anas’s rise as an anti-corruption entrepreneur and a covert political agent with unaccountable privileges.
President Rawlings had only one term left if he won the 1996 election, which the NDC was confident he was going to win whosoever became his running mate. The transition to an NDC Government in the future without Rawlings began with the nomination of Professor Mills as Rawlings’ running mate. The Ahwois hedged their bets as the main pillars behind Professor Mills’ Vice Presidency and his future. Rawlings’ trust in his comrades blinded him from seeing the double agency in the behaviour of the Ahwois. The “Ahwoi Capture” of Professor Mills that will affect and influence the future relationship between President Rawlings and Professor Mills had begun.
A content analysis of the author’s chapter 4 reveals he had to doctor facts and available data to conclude that before the NCD submitted its “Evolving a True Democracy” report to the PNDC “no options were foreclosed”: “The foreclosure only came with the presentation of the NCD report to the PNDC which came down cautiously in favour of multi-party democracy”. Without inversing the facts and straining old data contained in a 4th March 1985 press statement to establish a lack of foreclosure in spite of the PNDC Chairman’s January 1991 New Year broadcast to the Nation, the author could not claim credit for his ingenious role in guiding the PNDC to the path of multi-party democracy in Ghana
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.
Efforts and attempts by the group of non-governmental organizations called Corruption Watch Ghana, their associated friends, and lawyers to silence, intimidate, and cancel my voice from defending the 1992 Constitution in the fight against corruption within the narrow laudable objectives of the law will, and has failed. The more my person is attacked and intimidated, the more I shall use all available legal means to ensure that the Office of the Special Prosecutor does not become a rogue institution.
There is no Ghanaian Head of Government or Head of State who can compare with the late Comrade Chairman, and President Emeritus Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawling in terms of the exhibition of the highest degree of integrity and honour in the management of the public affair of this country for the common good of its ordinary citizens since independence on 6th March 1957, except the Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. It will take this country a long time for another President who understands the ordinary Ghanaian psyche and empathizes truly with his compatriots to emerge to salvage our decaying democratic situation under the Constitution.
The public must be reminded that the three-year mandate of the Governing Board of the Office of the Special Prosecutor expired at midnight on 11th July 2021 without word from the President or the Office to the public. Now that the three-year tenure of the Governing Board of the Office has expired, patriotic Ghanaians need to be alert and support the Anti-Corruption Civil Society Organizations to ensure that this time round their chosen representative is sworn-in by the President when the new Board comes to be inaugurated.
Eleven months of service as Minister of Justice and Attorney General is not a record in the history of the Office of the Attorney General in Ghana. The evidence is openly on display in front of, Mr. Dame, the Attorney General’s office, that there were other Attorneys General who served in that office for less than eleven months: eleven months is not therefore a record. I am, without any regrets, proud of putting Ghana First and upholding my constitutional oath by leaving office as Attorney General fighting corruption just as I resigned as the SP from President Nana Akufo Addo’s Government on the same account of “The Family’s Corruption”.
The handing over of power by an African leader after two four-year terms under a Constitutional regime in Africa which you accomplished is a notable event in the political history of Ghana and Africa. Not all who have been Presidents or Heads of State have been of equal merit, or of at least equal importance. Presidents or Heads of State, like other men, vary in their importance on their generations and history. Some even in their lifetime never raised a ripple on the surface of politics and whose names are now forgotten by all but students of their period…
I wish Hon. Yaw Buaben Asamoa to understand that the Office of the Special Prosecutor is governed by statute and I am mandated to lead it in the achievement of that mandate. I do not need any direct or indirect instructions from any office holder of any political party like him. It is time for him and others like him from other political parties to stop confusing the fact that I was appointed by the President of the Republic to mean that it created a vested right in the political party which supported him to win the elections to instruct or direct me as the Special Prosecutor. I was appointed by the President in his capacity as the Executive Authority of Ghana under the 1992 Constitution and not as the flag-bearer of any political party. Should he think that I am talking too much and not doing my job the simple solution is for him to have me removed from office. Until then he should leave me alone to continue to exercise the independent duties of my office in accordance with my oath before Parliament and my oath at my appointment as the Special Prosecutor.
Who is really sleeping on the job when it comes to dealing with the canker of corruption? Heads of institutions wantonly disregard statutory requests made by the Office of the Special Prosecutor for information and production of documents to assist in the investigation of corruption and corruption-related offences. Public officers have been charged, arraigned before the High Court and their pleas taken only for them to return to their workplaces and work normally as though they have never been suspected of committing any corruption offences. Despite all the powers conferred on the Office of the Special Prosecutor by the law, when heads of institutions continually refuse or fail to support the fight against the canker of corruption by not vigorously applying regulations intended to aid the fight against corruption and other crimes, they ultimately undermine the work and impact of the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
Good religious bodies are the moral and ethical compass of social and political organizations and are better adapted to the preventive role of fighting corruption: they have over the years effectively served as corruption prevention social and political organizations in Ghana. Their contributions to the establishment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor attest to their positive preventive role in the fight against corruption. The Office still needs the active support of good religious bodies not only in the prevention of corruption but also to protect its independence and give it the free room to treat corruption and corruption-related offences as purely criminal offences without fear or favour, affection or ill will. Good religious bodies cannot afford to let this last experiment in fighting corruption and corruption-related offences in Ghana be captured again by the political elite just for political point scoring. They have a spiritual and temporal obligation to ensure that the wellbeing of the nation is put above the greed and avarice of the political elite as good religious bodies have tenaciously demonstrated in Ghana over the years.
To correct recent factual misrepresentations in media and on WhatsApp, herewith my response to assure the public that while I occupy the role of Special Prosecutor, crime will always be treated as crime and no political party card can act as an insurance against investigating and/or prosecuting any offences that fall under my mandate under the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959).
The Office of the Special Prosecutor is Ghana’s new anti-corruption agency. With its prosecutorial powers, it is being seen by many as an expected solution to the problem of corruption in Ghana. However, the nation’s inability to adequately resource and guarantee the independence of law enforcement from politics has affected the fight against corruption over the years. Unless there is a change of attitude in practice, the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act may soon be seen by the public to be, like its predecessors, a delusion and not an achievement.
My response at my approval public hearing that some of my articles are based on my perceptions and opinions does not mean that they were not based on fact or reality. Those learned in research methods and intelligence know that my answers were intended for the protection of my sources and collection methods giving rise to the conclusions I arrived at in my several articles on corruption and abuse of power for private gain. The parting thoughts in this article are in recognition of the fact that as a quasi-judicial officer, after my appointment I will have to behave as a justice of the superior court will do and will henceforth be unable to answer to several unfounded criticisms.
Okudzeto Ablakwa is the person whom while claiming to be entitled to the title Honourable Deputy Minister at age 28 years without having done any public service in his life has made himself notorious for insulting everybody old enough to be his father and other elders including former President Rawlings and former President Kuffuor. When a child is cursed by a father who brought him up from age three because of disrespect and insults to him the child grows up to become the type of Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa: with sharp teeth, both figuratively and physically and a scourge on all elders of the whole Ghanaian society except those who feed his greedy political stomach.
Despite my preference for strengthening the traditional, common law and conventional independence of the Attorney General under our Anglo-American-Ghanaian system of jurisprudence; upon my examination, analysis and critique of the provisions of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill, 2017, I have concluded that the establishment of a permanent Office of the Special Prosecutor is legal under Article 88 of the 1992 Constitution so long as it is done under the authority of the Attorney General. However, the feasibility of establishing a permanent Office of the Special Prosecutor to deal specifically with corruption and related offences by law is premised on the exemplary moral compass and integrity of the Executive Authority personified by the elected President and his determination to give law enforcement authorities, including the Attorney General, the expected constitutional support to operate strictly in accordance with their oaths of office to be fair, transparent and impartial in the execution of their duties without fear or favour, affection or ill will. Absent such a President and public officers, no number of enactments can achieve the objective of fighting systemic corruption in Ghana. My hope is that this paper will help civil society, the active public, the Government and Parliament to give due consideration to all the factors that need to be taken into account to make the Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill, 2017 now being discussed by the Committee of Parliament during the vacation, capable of being enacted in a bi-partisan manner when Parliament resumes in October 2017.
Is someone sabotaging the President’s fight against corruption? The current enactment of the Office of the Special Public Prosecutor Bill, 2017, raises questions around the inclusion of Clause 3 sub-clause 4 of the Bill. If, as it states, the Special Prosecutor is not to investigate and prosecute corruption offences relating to the Public Procurement Act, 2003 and the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 – this lays down vague and ambiguous exceptions that can be exploited. Whoever inserted the sub-clause is legalizing an undefined species of corruption as not being serious enough to warrant prosecution ever or at all. The Bill before Parliament also has consequential amendments in Section 78 (1) that remove the offence of corruption from the jurisdiction of the Economic and Organised Crime Office. Who will then investigate and prosecute categories of corruption offences by public officers and politically exposed persons not meeting the standards in Clause 3(4)? We cannot justify any form of corruption. Let us take a keen interest in the passage of the Bill through Parliament so that Ghanaians are not short-changed in the actualization of the promise by the President to fight corruption as corruption, and crime as crime.
I invite fellow patriotic citizens to join me in condemning recent unwarranted attacks and shameful insults on the British High Commissioner and his Government, who only sought to defend the honour and dignity of Parliament as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution by pointing out past misconduct and suspected crime of some members of Parliament. The insults coming from MPs from both sides of Parliament give the impression that Parliament is more hysterical about its reputation being brought into disrepute through the exposure of dishonourable conduct by its members rather than maintaining the honour and dignity of the institution of Parliament through a transparent, fair and credible constitutional process of dealing with members who bring the reputation of the institution into disrepute.
Mr. President, Ghanaians exhibit a great deal of good will for you to succeed as President. But make haste slowly and be fairly sure of each step you take. My humble observation from some of your recent pronouncements and acts as President, however, is that you appear to trust so many people without any reservations. Your anti-corruption agenda was a winning manifesto item at the elections, and we are expecting you to implement your promises without fear or favour, affection or ill will. Many Ghanaians, like me, are not followers of your political party but as long as you continue occupying that high moral ground and fight corruption in deeds, you will succeed and your first four-year tenure will usher in the golden age of Ghana again. If you always put Ghana First in your administration, the present goodwill you enjoy will endure throughout your tenure.