So Rawlings Is Not Incorruptible After All!

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has been at the forefront in the fight against corruption in this country. Ever since he left office, Mr. Rawlings has smeared almost every president and minister that has served the country with corruption.

President Kufuor, Professor Atta Mills and now President Mahama have all been accused of either indulging in corruption or presiding over corruption.

In all these cases, the former military pilot painted himself as a man of integrity, and that he had never entangled himself in any form of corruption.

Meanwhile, somewhere in 1996, the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), after years of investigations, found some of Mr. Rawlings' key ministers guilty of corruption. Surprisingly, the government he presided over issued a White Paper to exonerate all the ministers of the corruption charges.

The case died its natural death, because CHRAJ had, and still not, been clothed with prosecutory powers to drag the affected ministers to court.

Then came the bombshell in 1998, where Flt. Lt Jerry John Rawlings was accused of having received a $5 million bribe from the then Nigerian brutal military dictator, General Sani Abacha. According to the story, which The Chronicle pursued vigorously at that time, the said money was brought to Mr. Rawlings by Mr. Ismaila Gwarzo, then National Security Advisor to General Abacha.

President Rawlings did not make any official comment on the issue, but his ministers and parliamentarians defended him with all the forces they could marshall, to the extent that an attempt made by the Minority to push for a parliamentary inquiry into the allegation was torpedoed by the Majority.

The man had painted himself as a clean man, but when the opportunity came for him to prove to the world that he was indeed incorruptible, he failed the test.

Like his ministers' case, the alleged bribery allegation also died naturally, without any investigation to either confirm it, or otherwise.

Eighteen solid years down the line, the former president has now come to confirm that, indeed, he received the money from the late General Abacha, but denied it was $5 million, saying it was only $2 million that was brought to him by Mr. Gwarzo.

Granted that it was indeed $2 million that Mr. Rawlings received, why did he keep quite when his ministers were jumping from one radio station to other, denying that he had ever received a bribe from Abacha.

As the adage goes, he who preaches equity must always come with clean hands. The word corruption is like a chewing stick in the mouth of President Rawlings, which is good, we must admit, because it keeps our governments on their toes.

What is not known to Ghanaians, however, was that whilst preaching corruption here, corruption there, corruption everywhere, he himself had delved deeper into it and benefitted tremendously. Yet, we are talking about the man who shot and killed Messrs R.E. Kotei, I.K. Acheampong, Utuka, Feli, Amedome, F.W.K. Akuffo, Afrifa, and Air Vice Marshall George Yaw Boakye for allegedly indulging in corruption.

The money allegedly misappropriated by these slain people comes nowhere near the $2 million Mr. Rawlings claimed to have received, yet they were shot and killed, but our former president did not blink his eyes before collecting the Nigerians tax payers' money, which he had not worked for.

Clearly, Rawlings has exposed his hypocrisy to millions of Ghanaians, and those beyond the borders of this country, for admitting finally that he, indeed, took the Nigerian money handed to him on a silver platter by Abacha.

It is the hope of The Chronicle that President Buhari, who has waged a relentless war against corruption, will pursue Mr. Rawlings to take back the $2 million he has publicly admitted to collecting.  We end this editorial with the famous Nigerian folklore: The day the monkey is destined to die, all tree branches become slippery.