Comrade JJ Rawlings the ordinary Ghanaian misses you already just 4 years on

Dear Comrade Jerry John Rawlings, just four years after your return to the Kingdom of The Lord Our Redeemer, the ordinary adult Ghanaian who knew the wonders of your hands as the Chairman of the 31 December Revolution under the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and as the President who led our dear nation in the glorious period of the Fourth Republic of Ghana with the 1992 Constitution which survives 31 years on, already miss you.

Every day things are getting worse for the ordinary person in the street despite the foundation of service you inculcated in the body politic as Chairman and the first President of the Fourth Republic you birthed with your blood as ink in signing the original 1992 Constitutional document after the referendum ushered it into existence.

The 1992 Constitution signed with your blood and bequeathed to the ordinary Ghanaian for whom you dedicated your life continues to be raped and defiled by the greedy and shameless political elite in association with the emerging deep state, the arrogant Ghanaian comprador bourgeoisie and looters of the national exchequer through subterfuges with the institutional apparatus of state enjoined under your Constitution to guard the national resources for the ordinary people whom you humbly served until your last breath.

Comrade Rawlings, the judiciary you fought hard to build by respecting the decisions of the Supreme Court and the other courts are now perceived to have declined in the rating of independence and impartiality by about a whopping 30% between 2017 and 2023 using the measuring indicators of judicial impartiality premised on factors such as the independence of the courts, autonomy of judges, and judicial appointments.

I remember how you avoided dealing directly with the Chief Justices who served under you during your tenure with the respected PNDC Member, Justice D. F. Annan, a retired Justice of the Court of Appeal, who later became the first Speaker of Parliament of the Fourth Republic, dreading any interference with the judiciary. A perception of packing the courts started in earnest as though there will not be a tomorrow after your demise as if your outspokenness on matters of national integrity and justice had acted as a break on such effusive and partisan political ventures when you lived.

The citizens of the Bawku Municipality have deliberately or by laxity been instigated in the management of the intractable chieftaincy and land conflict you thought you had solved once and for all, into a state-sponsored local fratricidal civil war just less than two months to the 2024 elections. Conservatively, 23 precious lives have been lost in the Bawku township and its environs alone, adding to eight others ambushed and needlessly murdered on the Gbemsi, Sayoo and Walewale road in the North East Region on the Tamale to Bolgatanga highway under the watch of the state security apparatus. The number maimed is a closely guarded state secret, as it will scandalize the electorate into rebellion.

Comrade Rawlings, you will not recognize the National Democratic Congress (NDC) you founded were you to return here. The cadres of the 31 December Revolution who sustained the Fourth Republican Constitution under your Presidency have all been pushed to the parking lane. Your cadres, former Ministers, and Members of Parliament resemble beggars in their own house after years of sacrifices for Mother Ghana. Lest I forget, Comrade Kofi Aikins, the indefatigable former Chairman of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) joined you last month and I hope he has told you how low he was treated by people who used to rely on him for mass mobilization in building Ghana.

Parliament is in flames under the Speaker of Parliament who was not a cadre but had the opportunity to contest the 1992 election because Comrade Anleu-Mwine Debagah (now a Professor at the UDS) had to leave for studies abroad. Parliament has been adjourned sine die whilst the Members of Parliament take their salaries and allowances over a needless disagreement about four seats that will be settled on 7 December 2024 by the electorate. All patriots are urging the leaders of the escalating conflict to pull back from the brink and not destabilize your Constitution.

Comrade Rawlings, the foundation you left behind, the Rawlings Foundation, only issues lame statements on a few occasions and appears to be directionless in galvanizing your teaming supporters and admirers of your legacy to continue to exhibit positive defiance and defend real probity, transparency and accountability of Government. It is a paradox that the late President Mills whom you brought into the NDC and made a President serving less than his four-year tenure is more celebrated and honoured by the party that recognizes you as its founder.

Your name only comes in handy during elections because it mobilizes the mass of ordinary voters who worship your exemplary service, ideals and integrity. Comrade, I have just learnt that for the first time since your demise, the NDC Head Quarters is holding a wreath-laying ceremony this morning in your honour to mobilise your teaming supporters for their votes at the impending 7 December 2024 elections, just a few weeks hence. Hypocrisy by a pack of hypocrites indeed! z

My dear Comrade Chairman and President, you used to tell us at cabinet meetings that you never feared your enemies. You rather respected their courage in the declaration of enmity. The traitor was to be the most feared, you used to say. And true to your preaching you saw the Judas Iscariots collaborating to lead opposition to you with their infamous “Working with Rawlings”. As fate would have it, you went to the ancestors before you could reorganise the NDC and those traitors are now the godfathers controlling the party you founded. But with you in heaven, the NDC shall rise again in the spirit in which you founded the party, no matter how long it takes. It will never be renamed the old CPP as they wish.

Ghana is in a second election circle since you departed and the atmosphere is tense, acrimonious and destabilizing as though greed surpasses service as the prime value under the Constitution. But while we live, we shall continue to fight to bear the torch you lit to emancipate Ghana and Africa.

Just in four years, Ghanaians are missing you as the most honest Ghanaian leader of integrity under the 1992 Constitution, a hard taskmaster, with a heart of tolerance and magnanimity. We are still looking beyond the horizon and wondering when salvation will come to Ghanaians again under the 1992 Constitution you gave to our homeland Ghana. I salute you Comrade, and assure you that as long as we live here we shall continue to fight, fight, and fight for the egalitarian ideals that underpinned our revolution. There shall be no retreat and there shall be no surrender. You are most fondly remembered in these chaotic times. Say hello to Arikpo, (Gp. Captain Richard Forjoe) your beloved co-pilot.