Rawlings McCoy

There was no denying the fact that the bloated man who stood in front of an audience yesterday shouting himself hoarse over what could not be comprehended by many Ghanaians, was the same person who ruled this beautiful country for close to two decades, the Real Rawlings.

Nineteen wasted years during which Ghanaians contained an eccentric as a leader is a painful chapter in our history especially since the man has learnt nothing in the said period of trials and errors in running this country.

The fallout from the travesty of rule of law which featured mostly during this chequered period saw our country transform into a laughing stock with the leader threatening “Africa would burn”. The continent did not burn, but while Judges and many other citizens died through deliberate and planned operations to eliminate them, others just disappeared into thin air.

Thankfully though, we are getting over it, even in the face of the periodic ranting of the Real Rawlings.

How did we tolerate such a personality who epitomizes everything diabolic and deceitful for nineteen years? Some might say it is an indictment on us as a people.

The logic in his arguments was unfathomable as he uttered unprovoked innuendos and direct insults on a number of personalities in the country, an anomaly worsened by his occasional veering from one subject to another.

We found it outlandish that this man sought to create the impression, albeit woefully, that the matter of the murdered Judges, whose 26th anniversary was observed a few days ago, has been settled.

Let Rawlings not fool himself and others that all has ended about the Judges' murder which he sought to do by a rather clumsy analogy. According to him, had the Dagbon issue been thoroughly investigated as his junta did about the Judges through the Special Investigation Panel, peace would have returned to the place.

Outright balderdash! If Rawlings does not know it, we wish to tell him that the three brains behind the abduction and murder of the three Judges and the retired Army Major are in the country.

Mr. Rawlings should take note that Ghana has grown past the period when he conned some of his compatriots into believing that he had brought salvation to them.

Posterity will deal with the brains behind the murders at the appropriate time. Mr. Rawlings, who provided the Fiat Campagniola for the Amedeka-led operation?

This conman, we are convinced, did not read Machiavelli well when he sought to justify the use of the harsh approach to getting people to submit to his wishes or dictatorship. He occasionally ordered his audience to “keep quiet, listen.”

Yesterday's foul speech was nothing but an attempt at pre-empting what could befall his better-half, considering the fate of his financial wizard, Tsatsu Tsikata.

Having been reduced to irrelevancy even within his own party, this man managed to get the media to provide him with an opportunity to be heard and thereby catch attention of a country he once ruled with reckless abandon.

For those seeking political entertainment, yesterday provided such a comic opportunity as Rawlings expressed his nostalgia for the good old days when he ruled the political terrain, wielding the power of life and death. History can be harsh. Those days are gone, never to return and so we think that Rawlings' hubris should be understood in a way.

The police, military and the ethnic card were all flaunted before his audience.

As for the police, Rawlings does not even know that the UN standard for one policeman to about 900 or so citizens is what the incumbent administration is inching towards by the recruitment exercises it has undertaken so far.

Exhibiting traits of a political fraud, Rawlings now hails Nkrumah as a revolutionary, a man he denigrated some years ago as only getting a flag for the country. He now hails the first President as a revolutionary.

Having lived all his life in Ghana, it is amusing how Rawlings relishes mimicking the American slang when talking to his compatriots.

In his naivety, he talks about resistance, chastising the top hierarchy of the military for not supporting another usurpation of the people's power during the last election.

We pray that the fellow does not hang himself one of these days out of frustration for not realizing his wish for a turbulent Ghana.

For the NDC hawks who think they can re-introduce Rawlings into Ghanaian politics, they have landed on a fool's paradise where they might live for the rest of their lives.