Energy Minister-designate, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, popularly known as Napo, has taken the lead in the agenda to write off late former President Jerry John Rawlings as the founder of Ghana’s democracy in the Fourth Republic.
Even as Mr. Rawlings’ dead body is still lying in state and his family and friends are mourning him, Dr. Opoku Prempeh, a former Minister of Education, has come out boldly to say he does not think Rawlings is the founder of the democracy Ghana is enjoying currently.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, January 26, 2021, shortly after filing past the mortal remains of Mr Rawlings at the Accra International Conference Centre, Dr. Opoku Prempeh said “I am not sure about the founder of Ghana’s democracy but the beginner of the sustainable democracy that we are seeing.”
Dr. Opoku Prempeh, a Member of Parliament for Manhyia South Constituency in the Ashanti Region, has since faced sharp criticisms for his comment.
Mr. Rawlings, a former military ruler, became the first President of Ghana in the Fourth Republic after Ghana returned to democratic rule in the early 1990s.
After serving two terms on the ticket of the party he founded, the National Democratic Congress, formerly Provisional National Defence Council, he gave up power to the then opposition New Patriotic Party leader, John Agyekum Kufuor.
Not many in Ghana and around the world thought that at the end of his tenure, he (Mr Rawlings) will hand over power to the New Patriotic Party. But his decision to hand over power, ushered in a new dawn dawn in Ghana’s political history, ending the several years military take overs of civil governments that characterized the country from 1966 when Ghana’s first democratically elected President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, was overthrown in a coup.
But many feel as has been the case over the years, there will be attempts by politicians and political historians to discredit Mr Rawlings as the founder of the democracy Ghana currently enjoys, which marks the longest period in the history of the country without the overthrow of a civilian government.
Mr Rawlings died on Thursday November 12, 2020 at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra. He was born in 1947 (aged 73), ten years before Ghana gained independence from Britain in 1957.
The late former President was well loved for stance against corruption, injustice and the abuse of power. He is expected to be buried on Wednesday, January 27, 2021, in the national capital of Ghana, Accra.
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