Rawlings Challenged

FORMER PRESIDENT, Jerry John Rawlings, has been charged to explain to Ghanaians how he has been able to raise money to fund his children's expensive education abroad.

Also, a challenge was thrown to Rawlings, founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), to tell the good people of Ghana how he managed to generate funds to purchase the bullet-proof vehicles he had been driving, if he was not corrupt.

Nana Amo Adjepong, a US-based Ghanaian community activist and ex-vice chairman of the North America branch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who issued the statement at a news conference in Kumasi on Tuesday, said former president Rawlings could not taunt President Kufuor and his government and go unquestioned when he himself was not infallible.

He pointed out that former president Rawlings would remain corrupt and a thief until he came out personally, to account for the money with which he funded his children's education in the United Kingdom, particularly, that of his daughter, Ezanetor, in the UK medical school.

The US-based NPP died-hard activist and unrepentant critic of the former president, who was forced into exile in the States for over 35 years until 2000, when the NPP won political power, addressed the media on what he titled, 'Jerry Rawlings' Factor'.

Nana Amo Adjepong blamed the friction between President Kufuor and former president Rawlings on the latter, whom he accused of fomenting trouble and continually attacking the person and office of his successor.

He emphasised that President Kufuor could not be blamed for the continued bad blood between him and his predecessor, adding that under no circumstance would President Kufuor speak ill of the NDC leader, if he (Rawlings) had not prompted it.

For an amicable settlement of the impasse between the two prominent personalities, Nana Amo Adjepong appealed to Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, MP for Tamale South, and other level-headed leading members of the NDC, to sit the former president down, and advise him to stop telling lies about President Kufuor.

While describing as unfortunate, Rawlings' allegation that President Kufuor was the richest African head of state, the US-based NPP man noted that such baseless utterances could deny the country access to certain monetary aids toward the development of the country.

According to him, Nigeria was denied access to quite a number of financial aids, under the administration of its former president, General Sani Abacha, when members of the international community, including donor organisations, were made to believe that Abacha was fabulously rich.

He contended that no patriotic citizen of the country, having the development of the nation at heart, would travel outside the borders of the country and make pronouncements that would denigrate the presidency of his country, as Mr. Rawlings and his likes had been doing.

Nana Amo Adjepong, who was said to have teamed up with two other critics of the former president in 1982, to inform the United Nations about the abuse of the human rights of Ghanaians, accused Mr Rawlings of being jealous of President Kufuor.

According to him, the unruly behaviour of the former president toward President Kufuor, stemmed from the fact that Rawlings was jealous of the cordial rapport between the president and the US president, George W. Bush and British Prime minister, Mr. Tony Blair.

He surmised that Jerry Rawlings was desirous of President Kufuor's achievements; having won the hearts of leaders of foreign countries, who actually listened to Mr. Kufuor when he spoke to them.

The NPP guru urged Ghanaians to disregard the allegations made by the former president, bearing in mind that the former military dictator was day-dreaming, thinking that he was still in power.

Nana Amo Adjepong noted that the NDC appeared to have gained the upper hand, lambasting the government, in view of the fact that the NPP members had been quiet for far too long, and failed to propagate the achievements of the Kufuor administration.

He therefore charged the party's activists to begin educating the people on the accomplishments of the government.