Coups are no more necessary in Ghana -JJ

... Ablekuma South rocks and rolls ... 'Coups and revolts are ordained by God' - JJ Accra, Oct 25, Chronicle -- Former President Rawlings, flanked by his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, electrified the Ablekuma South Constituency over the weekend when he pulled a respectable crowd and told them that even though victory was looming for the NDC in the coming elections, supporters must remain vigilant to ward off rigging plots by the ruling government.

The Ex-President who was impressed by the crowd, noted that it was encouraging to see such a large crowd of supporters for an otherwise miniature event and noted that he was glad that the NDC had seen increasing figures in its membership as well as several returnees.

“I am glad that you have all returned to the NDC. With the wicked acts by the NPP prior to the 2000 elections and now in government, it is bad for anybody to contest on its ticket,” he said.

Mr. Rawlings who was speaking at the launch of the campaign of the party's parliamentary candidate, Mr. Nii Adama Morrison, at the Karikari Park, at 'Agege', said President Kufuor was afraid of losing the December elections.

He said as a result, the President was adopting various means to rig the polls.

“On December 7, police your ballot boxes. Everybody, by 3pm, should start gathering at various polling stations and wait until the results are written on the national display boards before you leave because they are finding ways and means to rig the elections.”

To ensure that elections were free and fair, he called on all party supporters, agents and officials to be vigilant and wait until the Electoral Commission finally announced the results.

Flt. Lt. Rawlings, who touched on various issues, including revolts and coups, stated that God ordained revolts. “Go and read Ethics of Man, I need not read that book. The book talks about revolts and that it was ordained by God,” he said.

Speaking in Ga, the NDC founder explained how various coups happened in the country, how foreigners colonized the nation and how sections of the Africans fought against European rule.

He said at the time that Kwame Nkrumah was fighting for independence, sections of Ghanaians fought against it, arguing that Ghana was not ripe for independence. “There are some blacks that fought against that and that led to Nkrumah's proclamation of 'Independence Now'.”

He said the opposition to Nkrumah culminated in the 1966 coup d'etat, pointing accusing fingers at Dr. Busia as one of the people who claimed Ghana was not ready for independence.

“What we are going through today is similar to what caused the 1979 revolt when the black man was fighting for his own people. Today, coups are no more necessary in Ghana. We don't need any coup in Ghana again.”

The former President, whose security personnel had it tough warding off the thick crowd at the rally, observed that the NDC taught the masses how to fish, not to keep feeding them.

According to him, during the tenure of the NDC, loans contracted from the IMF were used to construct roads for the people in the Upper West, Upper East and Western Regions.

“We extended electricity to those areas to allow them engage in small scale businesses. In other words, we provided the basic infrastructure for education for the people and they used it to feed themselves.”

Mr. Rawlings, who was with his wife, Nana Konadu, Mr. Victor Emmanuel Smith, his Special Aide, Mr. Baba Jamal, deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Mr. Joshua Alabi, Greater Regional Chairman of the party and a host of others, urged the electorate to vote massively for Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, the Presidential Candidate of the NDC for a better Ghana.

He said the current hardships inflicted by the NPP administration simply showed that the NPP did not respect the intelligence of Ghanaians.

He urged the returnees to open the doors to those outside to come back to the party.

Ex-President Rawlings said the entrenchment of democracy by the NDC through district assembly elections gave opportunity for the NPP to deceive the electorate to gain power, adding that, now, the masses had discovered the true character of the NPP and were determined to come out of the deception and lies, no matter how hard the NPP tried to retain them.

“We nurtured the culture of democracy and enhanced it through the district assemblies elections. There is no need for coups in the country any longer. The freedom of speech prior to 2000 was not {rich} but we allowed them to do whatever they could and they insulted us and deceived you into the bush. They used the freedom of speech to lie.”

The aspiring MP, Adama Morrison, Baba Jamal, and Joshua Alabi also addressed the rally in turns.