JJ was hurt by the monetization of politics – Dr Akofa Segbefia

General news for Monday 25 January 2021

Source: e.TV Ghana

01/25/2021

A close confidant of the former president, Jerry John Rawlings, Dr Akofa Segbefia said the late president was grieved when the country’s political system was monetized.

Dr Segbefia noted that in 1992 there was no such thing as buying votes and delegates, but that all changed in the 2000s and that did not suit the late President JJ ​​Rawlings.

The social commentator in an interview with Samuel Eshun on a special edition of the Happy Morning Show, celebrating the funeral rites of JJ Rawlings said: “In 1992 there was no such thing as monetization, buying delegates, etc. in our bodily politics. But in 2000 we started to introduce money into our policy and he didn’t like it ”.

He revealed that in an attempt to bring sanity back to our bodily politics, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) exponentially increased the number of people who voted during the party convention.

“I don’t know if the NDC decided not to let anyone buy votes or delegates. You will realize that the party has increased its delegates by a large number, to over one hundred thousand people (100,000) ”.

He noted that with so many people it was impossible to buy votes unlike now. On his agreement, a politician ahead of the 2020 general election bought flat screen televisions for a hundred (100) delegates to win in his party’s primaries.

According to his authority, it is impossible for Ghanaian politicians to engage in vote buying over their combined wages and end-of-service benefits, which raises another question about how they acquire the money they they spend.

Dr Segbefia added that what the late president represented was no different from Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah. “There were things that Kwame Nkrumah said that are still relevant today and that is why we say he lived ahead of his time. The many things he said; Leadership by example, responsibility, modesty and accountability are just a repeat of what Kwame Nkrumah said before independence ”.

Jerry John Rawlings passed away on Thursday, November 12, 2020 from a short illness leaving behind a wife, former First Lady Konadu Agyemang Rawlings and four children.

Activities marking the last funeral rites of former President Jerry John Rawlings began on Sunday, January 24, 2021.

This follows the release of the funeral plan after a meeting between the Funeral Planning Committee, the family, the Anlo Traditional Council and other state agencies involved in organizing the funeral.