Rawlings Reveals Why He Hates Mills

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Created on Thursday, 16 January 2014 00:00

Rawlings Reveals Why He Hates Mills

16 January 2014

Truth they say is akin to pregnancy, no matter how long it is concealed, it will surely come out one day. Perhaps that was the motivation of the Managing Editor of The Al-Hajj, Alhaji Bature Iddrisu when he consistently held on to reasons why former President Jerry John Rawlings fell out with his onetime protégé and trusted Vice President, the late Professor John Evans Atta Mills.

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Whereas until recent times, reasons why the National Democratic Congress founder took on his then party leader in government was anonymous to many even as was constantly revealed by Alhaji Bature, but was predictably rebuffed by Rawlings’ loyalists and some members of the NDC, lo and behold the cat is finally out of the bag.

A Prophet as The Al-Hajj’s Managing Editor may be, former President Jerry John Rawlings, as if being pursued by the ghost of the late President has catalogued, and indeed confirmed reasons all along held by Alhaji Bature why he so much detests Mills whom he discovered and nurtured and who became President on January 7, 2008.

Mr Rawlings, who until last two weeks never made public why he became the number one ‘enemy’ of late Mills, could no longer stomach his reasons when he gave “marathon lecture” on the inception of corruption in Ghana out of which he tagged his successor John Agyekum Kufuor and the late President John Atta Mills as symbols of corruption and went ahead to give reasons why he hated Mills even in death.

Obviously giving his administration and himself a clean bill of health on the issue of corruption which is not unusual of him, Mr. Rawlings, while speaking as the guest of honor during the closing ceremony of the International Youth Fellowship (IYF) Volta Regional Camp at the Adidome Senior High School in the Volta Region revealed that he had been having sleepless nights for some time now and that not even medication, both local and foreign, could heal him of his ailment. This, he attributed to the late President Mills’ refusal to deal with alleged corrupt practices of the Kufuor Administration.

“Having now taken this country back… we refused to deal with it. That is when the sleeplessness disease started, under the Mills regime, not Kufuor’s regime. Because I was so scared…” because nothing was being done about it and…finally when we won, we let him get away with it”.

This he said was as a result of the refusal of the late President to deal with alleged corrupt practices of the Kufuor Administration after the latter has jailed and prosecuted officials of his (Rawlings’) administration including his wife, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings.

According to the former air-force pilot, the high level of corruption in the Fourth Republic started under Kufuor and was institutionalized by the late President Atta Mills.

He said, “When we won in 2008, the country was so poised to see that the injustices, the corruption and what nots was dealt with, in order to right the tree of justice. Mills refused to do it…Mills…Mills refused to do it. And that was the beginning of the true destruction of the moral fibre of this country. In spite of his holiness, his refusal to investigate and to deal with the crimes of the Kufuor regime is what led finally to the institutionalization of corruption in this country.”

Another reason he said made him hate Mills was his inability to ‘confront’ the Kufuor administration and (properly) make the country ungovernable when according to him there was clear evidence showing that the Kufuor government rigged the 2004 elections, obviously indicating that he would not stop attacking the duo, despite the demise of the late President.

Whereas Mr Rawlings’ reasons mirror the exact revelations Alhaji Bature had cited for the NDC founder’s poor relations with Mills, the other two reasons which he is yet to confirm was the late President’s objections to two major suggestions he made regarding the selection of a running mate in the 2000 and 2004 elections.

The Al-Hajj’s Managing Editor had among other things revealed that Mr Rawlings’ hatred for Mills was as a result of the latter’s refusal to name then Rawlings favorite, Dr Obed Asamoah, as his running mate for the 2000 election.

The late Prof Mills, he said repeated same when he named Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni as his running mate for the 2004 elections, despite pleas from Mr Rawlings and Nana Konadu for him to pick Mr John Dramani Mahama.

These reasons coupled with the ones Mr Rawlings himself has confirmed, accounted for the NDC founder’s extreme abhorrence for late Mills to the extent that he had wished he lost the last election if he was alive to contest it.

Source: Al-Hajj