I’m Not A Millionaire – Rawlings

Related Stories   Former President Jerry John Rawlings was once again in his elements yesterday when he preached the gospel of probity, accountability and social justice on the eve of the celebration of the infamous June 4th revolution, claiming that he was not a millionaire. He threw tantrums on virtually everybody, especially his predecessors. He blamed the current and past governments, especially the Kufuor-led NPP and Mills-led NDC administrations for supposedly moving the country towards what he described as “an irreversible situation down a tunnel.” This was in the presence of members of the current Mahama-led NDC administration including the likes of Volta Regional Minister, Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo, Deputy Minister of Women, Gender and Social Protection, Benita Okiti Dua, Deputy Minister in charge of Fisheries, Aquinas Quansah and Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the NDC, Kobina Ade Coker, all of whom sat in awe. Mr Rawlings, who was addressing cadres of the revolution at his Ridge office, interestingly, had to dispel a publication which put him as one of the eight richest millionaires in Ghana worth $50million. He led the June 4th revolution, one of the bloodiest uprisings in the country’s history some 34years ago, climaxing the celebration today at the Revolutionary Square. “My fellow countrymen, my value as a man of principle and integrity is incalculable. The difference is that in my situation, I have never exchanged or sold my conscience or sold my country, my principles, my integrity for money, or destroyed honourable people for money”, he said. The former President, therefore, asked rhetorically “why then will such a false statement about me being a multimillionaire be made?” While he claimed “the statement may be true for most of the others” seeking to extricate himself from the millionaires club allegedly compiled by the Forbes magazine, the apostle of June 4th revolution asked “why add a false statement about Rawlings to that list?” Justification Though he admitted to the fact that “there are genuine and hardworking multimillionaires all over the world”, The Junior Jesus, as he used to be called in the revolutionary days, said “there are also too many criminal multimillionaires who are raping our continent, and Ghana is no exception.” In order to sanitise the concept of being a multimillionaire, Mr Rawlings said “distinguished persons whose values are unrelated to money, must be made to also look like multimillionaires in order to make the concept acceptable to people in general” insisting that “being a millionaire, even if ill-acquired, must be made to look criminal so that such people cannot enjoy their loot in safety.” He spoke of June 4th as a revolution to “restore the dignity of the ordinary man and woman and punishing those who openly paraded corruption, those who dispensed favours irregularly and promoted what we used to call ‘bottom power’ in the award of contracts; those who sought to normalise a corrupt way of life in the minds of ordinary people.” For more than a decade, Mr Rawlings said “Ghana appears to have been moving towards an irreversible situation down a tunnel, thanks to Presidents Mills and Kufuor/John II and John III.” According to him, the onus now laid on President Mahama to pull the country out of this supposed tunnel. As to “how well, how far and how soon John IV” can achieve this, the former President said “is hard to say.” Today being 34years after the infamous June 4th revolution, he has asked every man, woman and child in this country to spend a few minutes reflecting on the path the country has travelled since June 4th 1979.

Source: Charles Takyi-Boadu/D-Guide