The tribute of Martin Amidu to his comrade Rawlings

I was taken aback on September 29, 2020, when after offering my condolences and expressing my experiential emotions about the consequences that the death of your dear mother could have had on you despite your old age, you said to me: “Chief, it’s good it happened now. Chef you never knew. Two or three years ago I was in poor health and was afraid to walk past her. At least now I can see her go.

I thought it was just one of the usual conversations between friends. Looking back, I now realize that my dear and respected former PNDC President and former President Emeritus Flt. Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings informed us of his imminent exit from his earthly assignments after the funeral of his dear mother and said goodbye to us.

After the burial of his dear mother on October 24, 2020, he was forced by state affairs to shorten his rest period to hold a series of mediation sessions with me, then the special prosecutor, in his office in Accra. October 27, 28 and 29, 2020. The late former President Emeritus Rawlings adjourned the first session until the next day, 28, and promised that we would have lunch together.

He kept his word and invited us to have lunch with him, adding that: “Chef” referring to me, “If you don’t eat this lunch I have arranged for us I will not be happy”. I reluctantly unmasked and helped myself to lunch with the Grand Chef. Others were present for lunch, including his sister Ms. Judy John Nkansah. Looking back, was it also in the nature of the last breakfast / supper that you had organized in anticipation of your next ancestral journey? We saw each other briefly in his office the next day, the 29th and he was hopeful and confident that justice and fairness for Ghana would result from his mediation efforts on the 30th the next day.

We were not able to meet face to face again because, contrary to our agreed expectations, I had been forced to carry out one of the teachings of our revolutionary struggle – the positive challenge without having warned him of my intentions to avoid any breakdown in any prospect. ongoing mediation. I didn’t have the skills to play chess, as I told you, Comrade Rawlings. I was very serious about being a loyal, faithful and genuine revolutionary comrade serving the interests of the common people of this country for whom you have led us to render selfless service during our long years together as comrades and brothers.

I heard the news of your admission to Korle Bu University Hospital on November 4, 2020. Then on the morning of November 12, 2020, somehow I had some trepidation and I tried to find out how you were doing. The prognosis was not bleak. Then at 10:15 a.m. I received the shocking and sad news that Ghanaians had yet to hear from the UK by phone while I was in a scheduled meeting in my then office. My cell phones started ringing. “Is what I hear about the death of former President Rawlings true? Is it true….? Is that true…? ”My pretension to appear self-taught despite the shocking and sad news of your sudden demise to our ancestors could not continue during the reunion. I still cannot believe that you have left us, your comrades, so suddenly and you put the whole nation in shock and despair.

The handing over of power by an African leader after two four-year terms under constitutional rule in Africa that you have completed is a notable event in the political history of Ghana and Africa. Not all those who have been presidents or heads of state have had the same merit, or at least the same importance. Presidents or heads of state, like other men, vary in their importance over their generations and their history. Some, even in their lifetime, never raised a ripple on the surface of politics and whose names are now forgotten by all but the students of their time. Comrade Rawlings, you are one of those rare gems of this land which will never pass from the minds of men, but will live on in their hearts, as long as Ghana endures because of the great qualities of your life.

His indomitable courage, all ubiquitous humanity and his love for freedom for every Ghanaian are the qualities of our great leader for two decades as revolutionary leader and constitutionally elected president under the 1992 Constitution he spawned which will forever make him the most famous son of our homeland Ghana. He was the head of state of four governments which included members of all political persuasions in this country who were ready to serve under him, and the nation’s confidence in a man was never fully justified. One of these men who served under his command as an indisputable question of fact of an opposing political persuasion immediately succeeded him as President of Ghana on January 7, 2001. Historians will analyze his strategy and tactics in the future and will emphasize no doubt its mistakes.

But we who lived those days and served under him have this advantage over historians of the future: that we can testify to the inspiration we received from his splendid courage, his integrity, his high morality, his charisma and of his incomparable eloquence. In the line of Ghanaian and African statesmen who have honored our political history in my adult life, none have rendered such incomparable service, not only to their country but to the Pan-African movement, to the African liberation struggle. , to the African continent in general, and the world in general.

None have fought so mightily in the sincere defense of truth and justice, and none have done more to uphold the standards of our national honor without greed and corruption. Sure! Jerry John Rawlings was a difficult builder, but he was tolerant and magnanimous. He was the kind of man who got the best of all his subordinates, each of whom was proud to serve him to the fullest. Even the traitors who once claimed to be his comrades who had hurt him in the most unjustifiable way before his disappearance attest in their treacherous books to his qualities as a statesman and leader to whom they and the nation owe their gratitude.

At this solemn and trying time of mourning and mourning, my compassion and sympathy goes out to his wife and widow, the indefatigable former First Lady and founder of the December 31 Women’s Movement, and co-founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 1992, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, who stood beside our late chief chief, rain or shine.

My heart goes out to this valiant woman, with the famous blood of Ashanti royalty in her veins, who supported the former president and former president through all his ailments and troubles and raised with their charm and beauty the three daughters and a son who mourn their Grandfather today. May the Holy Trinity in our Catholic faith give him and his children the strength to endure their grief.

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Martin Alamisi Burnes Kaiser Amidu is a politician and lawyer who served as Ghana’s Attorney General from 2011 to 2012. He was the country’s first special prosecutor from 2018 until his resignation in 2020, citing political interference from the president, Nana Akufo-Addo.