Baako Takes On Mrs Rawlings

MR. KWEKU Baako, Jnr., Public Affairs Representative of retired Major Kojo Boakye Djan, former spokesman for the erstwhile Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), has described statements attributed to Mrs. Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, published in The Chronicle of yesterday, as not just incredible but “pathetic lies.”

Speaking in an interview yesterday, Mr. Baako, who is also the editor-in-chief of the Crusading Guide, said Mrs. Rawlings’ assertions with regard to the handing over of power by the AFRC to civilian rule should be told to the marines.

“Indeed it is a height of vendetta. I cannot just believe that the wife of the ex-president and chairman of the AFRC made such a statement.”

Mr. Baako said Mrs. Rawlings’ claims might presumably come from her husband or other sources in the AFRC.

“Both of us may be speaking from the positions of what we have heard, what we saw and what we were told and it is possible for anybody or someone to argue that way,” Mr. Baako said.

“She was and still is the wife of the chairman of the AFRC and so it is possible that one of her sources of information was precisely her husband and other members of the council or the functionaries of that period. I, being public affairs representative of Boakye Djan in Accra, may also qualify in the same context to react to her statement.”

He said as an active supporter of the June 4 insurrection, “ I have spoken to every single AFRC member or functionary, especially those that count, over the last 20-21 years, as a way of building a global picture of what went into the insurrection, how they managed the regime and came out of the insurrection, how they had managed the handing over and how they had handled themselves out of power.”

“I see the assertions of Mrs. Rawlings as something that has no legs to stand on because it has no empirical basis.”

In The Chronicle’s interview with Mrs. Rawlings she said, “Soon after the announcement that there was going to be a handing over, Mr. Boakye Djan came to see me in the house and said that this handing over that they are going to do would cause confusion. At that time, Rawlings was in Cuba.”

She continued: “He said that they need to hold on to power for a while because things were scattered and that the country had to get stable before handing over. I remember telling him that, now you are not afraid to come to me. I said that because when things were hot I stopped him one day and he swerved and sped off.”

Mr. Baako said he finds Mrs. Rawlings’ claims baffling, adding that it was interesting that the former first lady carried herself as the most reliable witness of the ex-AFRC chairman.

As far as he was aware, he said, unlike the PNDC, in which she was active, Mrs. Rawlings had no role to play in June 4. “ During the AFRC (era) people hardly got near the chairman. The heat alone was too much for her to have got close to her husband, it was not possible,” he pointed out.

He said after he was literally forced by the council members to make an announcement about the handing over, Mr. Rawlings left for Cuba and Boakye Djan took over.

Mr. Baako said after Mr. Rawlings had left for Cuba, Boakye Djan asked all liaison officers to return to barracks ahead of the handing over and also terminated further investigations and interrogations in the barracks to ensure that the handing over was done.

He quoted a number of personalities who had attested to the sincerity of Boakye Djan to buttress his argument. He said in a recommendation, dated August 31, 1979, Mr. A. N. E. Amissah, former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, said, “Since June 1979, Captain Boakye Djan has been a member of AFRC government in Ghana. He is a member responsible for government machinery and national affairs.

In my role as Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and Local Government, we assumed, as it were, a working relationship, in an extremely internal military and disturbed civil situation. He has displayed matured political judgment, leadership and perseverance. He has contributed significantly to the restoration of normalcy to this country. He has been one of the consistent voices in favour of a quick return to civilian rule.”

Prof. Yaw Twumasi of the University of Ghana also said of the ex-Major in a recommendation dated September 2, 1979: “Boakye Djan is an extremely pleasant person who has matured considerably since graduating over a decade ago and especially since he became a member of the ruling council in Ghana in June 1979, he has been a moderating influence of the council.”

Another quote from the late Kofi Batsa in his book titled “The Spark from Kwame Nkrumah to Limann” published in the 1980s stated, “When I told the friend that I was going to write a book, he asked me whether I intended running down J. J. Rawlings, I told him that though I do, in fact assess him as a spiteful and a vindictive busybody. I would like the dust around him to settle down.

There are some fine colleagues of his, in the AFRC, who have done enough to spare Ghana a bloodbath. They have made the assessment of Rawlings quite difficult and a typical example is Major Boakye Djan who has a fine political character.”

Baako said the implication of Mrs. Rawlings as a witness of AFRC rule provides her with an opportunity to counter whatever submissions those gentlemen would make at the National Reconciliation Commission.

He said the assertions of Nana Konadu have put her firmly in the situation where she could be called as a witness of the AFRC rule before the NRC.

“We are hoping that she will not also seek refuge, like her husband did, in chemical interrogations, fetish shrines and others. We are hoping that she would have the courage, unlike her husband, and come before the commission.”