Jerry John Rawlings is a former Ghanaian military leader and subsequent politician who ruled the country from 1981 to 2001 and also for a brief period in 1979. He led a military junta until 1992, and then served two terms as the democratically elected President of Ghana.
Ghana.
Ghana’s former President Jerry John Rawlings has died at the age of 73.
Reports from Ghana say that the former president died in hospital in the capital, Accra, after a short illness.
Rawlings ruled the country from 1981 to 2001. First through military coup de tats until he was first democratically elected the President of the West Africa’s Gold Coast state in 1992.
He served for two terms until 2001, when he stepped down handing over power to a civilian leader.
Rawlings, first seized power railing against corruption and was responsible for executing several former heads of state for their alleged graft and mismanagement.
He was also seen as a champion of the poor, but came to be criticised for alleged human rights abuses.
Rawlings was born to a Scottish farmer and a Ghanaian mother, he entered the Ghana Air Force, graduating in 1969.
A decade later, as a senior officer in the air force, he overthrew a military government, handing over power to a civilian leader.
He executed several former heads of state and army generals for corruption, but expressed some regret about the killings. Later the execution by firing squad of Supreme Court judges also left a stain on his legacy.
“I am still aware that we in Ghana do not like bloodshed,” he said at the time.
“I personally do not like it. I mean, I’d rather, let’s say, confiscate a man’s wealth and bring him down to the level to which he’s brought us just to give him a taste of what life has been, what he’s done to us.”
Two years later he led a second coup and was the head of a military junta until introducing multi-party elections in 1992, when he was first elected president. He stepped down in 2001 after serving two terms.
He began his time in power as a committed socialist, but later introduced free-market reforms.
He is acknowledged for ushering a long period of political stability, that continues in Ghana today, after a tumultuous series of coups in the 1960s and 1970s.
In 2010 it was announced he had been named as the African Union envoy to Somalia.
Brief Profile:
Jerry John Rawlings is a former Ghanaian military leader and subsequent politician who ruled the country from 1981 to 2001 and also for a brief period in 1979. He led a military junta until 1992, and then served two terms as the democratically elected President of Ghana.
Born: June 22, 1947, Accra, Ghana
Died: November 12, 2020
Spouse: Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings(m. 1977)
Children: Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings,Kimathi Rawlings, Amina Rawlings, more
Parents: James Ramsey John, Victoria Agbotui
Books: Wise Cracks II
