JJ proclaims himself as Ghana’s messiah?

Former President Rawlings has described his incursion into the country's politics as the Messiah likening himself to Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed who he said, did a lot for the human race and yet were not appreciated.

According to him his intervention in the country's politics was like Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed, but was not appreciated by the people.

Speaking on a South Africa Broadcasting Corporation –SABC television programme “180 degrees” during a recent trip to that country, Mr Rawlings says he has no regrets for his coups, which he said, were meant to shape things.

During his two appearances on SABC's morning programme “180 Degrees” on September 15 and 16, 2005 the former president dismissed allegations of disappearances during his regime.

In a verbatim report of the interviews made available to Daily Guide from South Africa, Mr Rawlings said the charges of human disappearances were propaganda by his distracters, but admitted that the disappearances were necessary.

He said like the French revolution, it is necessary for some people to die to save the lives of others.

Justifying his coups, he said the events of June 4 were meant to contain the anger of the masses borne out of corrpution, instill accountability and remedy the injustices that were taking place in Ghana at the time of the military uprising.

Mr Rawlings said June 4, which was classified as a class struggle, transformed everything including the political oligarchy.

Tracing the current strained relationship between him and the present government, Mr Rawlings said the antagonism was brought about by the refusal of what he termed “ the political oligarchy to come to terms with reality”.

He discounted achievements of the Kufuor government saying the government was having a media-hype.

He accused the Western Media for treating the present government with kid's gloves, saying the media has turned a blind eye to the shortcomings of the government.

He said the culture of democracy had been thrown out of the window with corruption assuming a national pride while the western media look on unconcerned.

However, when it was pointed out to him that a discredited government as he described the Kufuor administration, would not submit itself to the African Peer Review Mechanism-APRM, of which Ghana was the first country to subject herself for scrutiny, under the NEPAD initiative, former president Rawlings said the process was faulty.

According to him the APRM process was a brilliant concept but its composition raises questions.

He explained that the neutrality and fairness of the assessors had been compromised, since the review mechanism was constituted by people who should themselves be monitored.

Praising his regime Mr Rawlings said there was nothing special about the present government because he also pursued the IMF programmes successfully, and built democratic structures culminating in the free and fair elections in the country.

He said the capitalist economic philosophy is sowing seeds of instability in many countries.

Mr Rawlings accused the French government and President Olushegun Obasanjo of Nigeria of propping up dynasties in Africa with the support they provided to the Togolese leader Faure Gnassingbe to succeed his father.

The former president said the late president Eyadema dismantled Togo's army and created a tribal one which has been inherited by his son.

Dynasties, he said, belong to the past and wondered why France, which is the colonial master of Togo and Obasanjo, African Union-AU chairman, did not prevent the succession of Faure Gnassingbe to the Togolese presidency.

Describing his 20 year-tenure of office as a good time he urged leaders to have courage and moral integrity to leave office in the face of trappings of office.

He commended the Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe for his leadership in the hunger stricken country, describing him as one of the finest patriots on the continent.