JJ Rawlings: Why I Insult Mills

Jerry John Rawlings and wife, Nana Konadu

Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings has vowed never to stop insulting President John Evans Atta Mills in public because the President is overseeing a country in which the Judiciary, instead of jailing officials of the past administration, hides under judicial independence to investigate and reinvestigate the allegations before passing judgment.

Jerry Rawlings said in most cases, the verdict of the judiciary has embarrassed the government of the day and though he has on countless occasions held private talks with Atta Mills over the matter, nothing has changed.

Thus he is forced to criticize him publicly because the National Democratic Congress (NDC) came to power on a campaign promise that corrupt officials of the past government would be jailed.

The ex- President disclosed that what annoys him most and pushes him to continue to criticize President Mills is that “some members of the judiciary are hiding behind judicial independence to embarrass government in cases where common sense should tell them this is black and not white” and the situation has allowed the euphoria and political adrenalin that greeted the uprooting of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to dissipate.

Rawlings explained further that the fact that Atta Mills is not doing anything about the current situation, as regards getting officials of the past government jailed for corruption, means he has failed to pursue the agenda for which the electorate voted for him and thus deserves to be criticized publicly.

The former President made the remarks last Saturday during the Tagbaza festival of the people of Anlo-Afiadenyigba in the Volta Region.

He noted: “We have wasted precious time in investigating and re-investigating the corruption and atrocities that were the hallmark of the previous government.

What is the quality of democracy where there is no justice or justice is delayed?

Can we call it democracy? Without the cleansing effect of justice, wherein lies the value of the constitution and the real values of the NDC party?

“As a party in power, we have failed to inspire. My criticism of the government is nothing personal. It is a result of its inability to pursue the agenda the electorate voted for.

I will be doing the people of Ghana a great disservice if I looked on unconcerned as matters take a turn for the worse. A few have chosen to malign and vilify me for my public criticisms of the government.”

He dismissed suggestions that he should not criticize the president publicly.

“Who says I have not attempted on numerous occasions to voice my feelings candidly and forcefully in private? Some who should know better have chosen to sponsor the distortion of the achievements of the revolution and portray it as a failure.

These ungrateful people today find themselves in positions of authority because the revolution nurtured them and gave them opportunities,” Rawlings added.

He continued: “When I speak I do not speak for myself. I speak for the suffering masses who, though not expecting magic overnight, also see no light at the end of the tunnel because the status quo that the NPP left behind is intact! Because we have failed to correct the wrongs of the past, they have now become emboldened and Kufuor can look into Mills’ face and accuse him of corruption.

“Today some members of the judiciary are hiding behind judicial independence to embarrass government. Rather, they have become colour blind because everybody has seen that the government has failed to seize the moral high ground.

“This is not an infringement on the judiciary. It is a criticism of the manner they have abused the moral fiber of the institution so much so that many are beginning to wonder if it is an estate of the realm or an opposition force.

For Ghana to revert onto the road to recovery, we as a people have to wake up and tell the government freedom is of no use without justice.

That is why we elected them into power.”
The former President also gave a philosophical theory of how Africans have deliberately failed to transfer the integrity of truth and democracy into an acquired modern language.

“In our native continent Africa, because we have deliberately and for corrupt reasons failed to transfer the integrity of truth and democracy expressed in our native culture into our acquired foreign language, we have ended up denying the integrity of truth and spirituality in the foreign language as well as our own,” he noted.