Former President Jerry John Rawlings will be laid to rest on 27 January, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced.
The late statesman died on Thursday 12 November 2020 after a short illness at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.
A statement addressed to diplomatic missions and sighted by Asaaseradio.com said Rawlings will be laid in state from 24 to 26 January at the forecourt of the Accra International Conference Centre from 9am to 5pm daily.
A memorial mass will be held for him at the Holy Spirit Cathedral on Tuesday 26 January from 9am to 11am.
The burial service for the founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the statement noted, will subsequently be held on Wednesday 27 January at the Independence Square, Accra.
Biography
Born on 22 June 1947, Rawlings attended Achimota Secondary School, where he acquired an O’ level certificate in education in 1966. In August 1967 he enlisted as a flight cadet in the Ghana Air Force, earning selection for training at the Ghana Military Academy in Teshie, Accra.
He moved in March 1968 to Takoradi in the Western Region, where he continued pursuing his course. In January 1969 he passed out as a commissioned pilot.
His dedication and hard work earned him the rank of flight lieutenant in 1978. He had a good rapport with his colleagues and showed the highest efficiency in his line of work.
In the air force
During his time in the Ghana Air Force, he became increasingly angered by what he saw as the general moral decay and decline of discipline in Ghana.
Like many junior officers in the armed forces, he blamed the national decline on the corruption in the ruling Supreme Military Council (SMC). The SMC, they reasoned, was the body in charge of ensuring that Ghana succeeded in its efforts to promote development.
His diligence as a junior officer earned him promotion, giving him the opportunity to associate with the more privileged echelons of society.
He became ever more indignant about the social injustices that were the commonly accepted way of life in Ghana and began to mobilize among his fellow officers. He was regarded with great unease by the SMC, which began to hound him.
First and second comings
Rawlings began to hatch a political and social scheme with a growing circle of colleagues and friends who were in agreement with his plans, and at the same time read widely. This awareness-raising culminated in his first coup attempt of May 1979, followed by a successful coup d’état on 4 June 1979 in which friends and supporters freed him from jail.
Among the early actions of the new Armed Forces Revolutionary Council government were the executions of eight senior military officers, including three former heads of state.
He stood down after democratic elections that year which were won by Hilla Limann’s People’s National Party (PNP). He staged a second coup on 31 December 1981, however, ousting Limann and launching the self-styled revolution out of which his Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) was born.
The 31 December Revolution was followed by in-camera military tribunals and a slew of extrajudicial killings, notably the murders in 1982 of three senior judges and a retired military officer.
In 1992, under some pressure from within and outside Ghana, including international financial institutions, he returned Ghana to civilian rule, introducing the Fourth Republican constitution and standing as the presidential candidate of the new party that he founded, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
He served two terms as a civilian president, handing over on 7 January 2001 to John Agyekum Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who defeated John Evans Atta Mills, Rawlings’s chosen successor as leader of the NDC.
Rawlings continued to play the role of senior statesman and both guiding light and critic of the NDC.
He is survived by his wife of 43 years, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, the leader of the National Democratic Party, three daughters and one son. His eldest child, Zanetor Rawlings, is the NDC MP for Klottey Korle in Accra.
Fred Dzakpata
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