Rawlings Is Ungrateful: Atta Mills Rescued Him From Disgrace

No single group of people in Ghana or within the NDC, arguably, has personally benefited more from the second coming of the NDC into government since 2009 under late President Atta Mills than Rawlings and his wife Nana Konadu Agyeman – Rawlings. This is not a guess but a truism supported by the facts.

Under the zero tolerance for corruption policy by President Kufuor in the year 2000, Rawlings, his wife and his PNDC cronies came under the radar for investigations for economic crimes. Some of the officials of the Rawlings regime suffered prison sentencing for causing financial loss to the state. They included Ibrahim Adam, former Agriculture Minister, Victor Salormey, former deputy finance minister, Dan Abudakpi, former trade minister, Kwame Peprah, former finance minister and Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, former GNPC chief executive all under the Rawlings regime.

It is believed that these people went to jail under President Kufuor not because they committed worse crimes than others in the NDC government of Rawlings but because they were probably sacrificial lambs who had to pay for the sins of the Boss and his wife.

Many others went through trial but were never convicted. One of those who was tried but later left off the hook is wife of former President Rawlings and President of the 31st DWM Nana Konadu Agyeman – Rawlings. She went under criminal trial for causing financial loss to the state in the divestiture of the GIHOC Nsawam Cannery.

Mrs. Rawlings and others faced several charges of conspiracy, causing financial loss to public property, conspiracy to obtain public property by false statement and obtaining public property by false statement. It is alleged that she failed to complete interest payments accrued on the purchase price in the acquisition of the cannery and for that matter they caused financial loss to the state.

Mrs. Rawlings is said to have caused a financial loss of up to ¢21billion old cedis to the state. The state under President Kufuor believed that Mrs. Rawlings acquired GIHOC Nsawam Cannery and its assets fraudulently. The trial lasted three years. Whiles the trial was still on-going, the NPP lost power in 2008 and therefore discontinued the case. Many believe that she was left off the hook because of several interventions by high profile citizens who thought that her conviction would have brought massive disgrace to the Rawlings family and could have brought about political upheavals at the time when the NDC was in opposition.

The new NDC government of President Mills could have however continued the trial and conviction of Mrs. Rawlings in the face of overwhelming evidence for causing financial loss to the state, but President Mills forgave Mrs. Rawlings whose husband nominated him to lead the NDC.

In less than two years down the line after the NDC came into office in 2009, Mrs. Rawlings received a payment of $USD 4,150, 27.50 from the Mills government as judgement debt to her comapany Calf Cocoa International. Nana Konadu Agyeman – Rawlings herself confirmed this fact to the judgments debt commission in June 2014.

This amount, nearly $USD 5 Million was paid to Mrs. Rawlings by the NDC government of President Atta Mills because according to her, in 2002-2003 the Kufuor government stalled the operations of her company Calf Cocoa by denying her the needed funds from a concessionary Chinese government loan which was to be disbursed through the ministry of finance at the time.

As a result, her Chinese partners who started the project with her in 1996-1997 withdrew from the business of Calf Coacoa, and her factory equipment had to be refurbished before her business operations could take off.

On this basis, Nana Konadu Agyeman – Rawlings went to court to seek judgment debt from the new NDC government of Atta Mills and which was willingly granted.

Supreme Court Justice Dotse said of judgment debts payments during the NDC government of Atta Mills that, they were schemes to ‘create loot and share’. And if there is any truth in this statement, Mrs. Rawlings definitely created and was helped by the NDC government of President Mills to loot nearly $USD 5million of tax payers’ money for doing nothing.

Indeed, this is someone who was about to start a business with a Chinese company. The business never took off in the first place. The NPP denied her the funds and delayed her project because she was on criminal trial for fraudulently acquiring Nsawam Canery, another state enterprise and its assets.

She then cunningly asked the new NDC government which had nothing to do with the delay of her project for nearly $USD 5million in compensation for the mere delay and got it from Atta Mills who probably wanted to please Mr. and Mrs. Rawlings. Despite this, Mrs. Rawlings contested with President Mills in 2011 NDC Presidential primaries to try unseat him. When she lost, she went on to form a new political party, the National Democratic Party(NDP).

Mr. Rawlings himself was stripped off all his privileges as a former President by the NPP and President J.A Kufuor. He even was reported as saying to foreign diplomats that he was earning only $USD 300 per month and could not take care of his medical bills. He also complained of several assassination attempts on his life by operatives of the Kufuour government.

He was denied V.I.P treatment at the Accra international airport. He was even banned from physically going to certain places in Ghana. His dignity as a former President was practically taken away from him.he ranted and raved endlessly about it.

To make matters worse, in January 2009, the ridge residence of Mr. Rawlings was gutted by fire and he lost all his property in the building.

The government of Atta Mills rebuilt the Rawlings residence and refurnished it at a whooping cost of several thousands of USD$. Atta Mills’s government also restored dignity to the office of the former President Rawlings by employing the full complement of staff to run it. His medical bills that cost colossal sums in South Africa and other places were said to have been paid by the Atta Mills government.

To further make Rawlings relevant on the international geopolitical scene and restore his dignity as a former President, Atta Mills’ government endorsed and sponsored his nomination as an AU high level representative to the conflict zone of Somalia.

Despite all these, Mr. Rawlings still want the whole world to believe that Atta Mills was a bad person who does not deserve to be praised even from his grave. He has called the NDC government corrupt and criminal. He has accused the NDC government of helping Mr. Alfred Woyome to loot a judgment debt of GH51.2 million whiles ignoring the nearly USD$ 5 Million that he and his wife took from Atta Mills government.

Mrs and Mrs. Rawlings after having taken fraudulent judgment debt money from the NDC government went to form a new political party, the NDP to wrestle power from the NDC or rather to help the NPP wrestle power from the NDC.

Even President Kufuor and the NPP who tried for three years to put Mrs. Rawlings in jail and take back the Nsawam Canery and its assets does not get any more personal attacks and insults from Rawlings and his wife.

And yet, the late President Atta Mills who rescued Rawlings from disgrace by the NPP, also rescued him from death by taking him abroad for expensive medical treatments, rescued Nana Konadu his wife from going to jail and allowing her to loot nearly USD$ 5 Million from the state – Prof. Atta Mills is the one who is still suffering ballistic attacks from Rawlings and his wife. No government, in Rawlings opinion, can do well in Ghana without him as the head of that government.

It has now been made very clear by Rawlings that he believes himself to be the only one who can rule Ghana and he never wanted to handover power to the NPP in the year 2000 anyways. In a recent confession contained in a speech he delivered to an association of Cuban-trained Ghanaian professionals, Rawlings said, “we (NDC) could have stayed on for another eight or sixteen just to work to consolidate situations very well and proper.”

“I made a suggestion to my colleagues that considering that people are becoming saturated with us or with me, let me let Justice Annan take over and I can be his number 2 or step aside. He can serve four years or eight years then I could come back, and that will be sixteen years of consolidation because what we had noticed was that these characters will destroy anything and everything so let’s not allow it.”

He continued, “Some of my comrades said no and that, it’s never been done before. Is that not what Putin did recently? We would have been the first to do it here. That would have helped to consolidate because quite often we make reference to institutions but the institutions rely on the human factor and if those human entities are not bold enough to defy that which is wrong, that institution will be weak; am I lying?” he asked.

It is not surprising that this self-confession has been received with massive vitriolic responses from the general public who appear to now be utterly fed up with the self-righteous intensification of Mr. Rawlings. Hundreds of readers on all Ghanaian online portals and social media went berserk upon hearing and reading the comments from Mr. Rawlings who also took the opportunity to insult the sensibilities of the late President Mills, his friends, family, lovers and admirers.

He has also called the leaders of the NDC today including President John Mahama who pride themselves are Nkrumaists ‘worse criminals’.

Even though the NDC party has officially remained silent over the former President’s latest attacks on its leadership and its late leader, many high profile individual party members are so vexed with the outbursts of the NDC founder; they are threatening to expose his hypocrisy and his selfish motives for his behavior.

Some have also called Mr. Rawlings a sick man, suggesting that he may be suffering from mental disorders which are causing him to frequently forget his own words, thereby contradicting himself endlessly.What people cannot understand, is why Mr. Rawlings takes pleasure in continuing to insult a man who has been dead for the past four years. Many NDC followers including those who previously defended Mr. Rawlings feel his abhorrent behavior is becoming sickening and must be roundly condemned.

With less than seven months to the November 7 elections in Ghana, observers are watching how far Mr. Rawlings and his wife Nana Konadu Agyeman – Rawlings are willing to go to bring down the NDC government. What is already clear is that the couple apparently prefer Nana Akuffo Addo and the opposition NPP in power than the ruling NDC under John Mahama. Whiles praising Nana Akuffo Addo as a bold leader, Rawlings has called John Mahama and members of his government corrupt and criminal.

Perhaps, Mr. Rawlings wants to go back to carrying his own luggage through the airport with a USD$ 300 monthly stipend without the freedom to go everywhere in Ghana. At least, we all now know that concern for the-people is no more the primary motivation for the political actions and utterances of former President Rawlings, otherwise, he and his wife would NOT have taken nearly USD$ 5 Million from we- the- people fraudulently under the cover of judgment debt after failing to account to the same people after leaving office with indemnity clauses!