Ghana Ex-Military Ruler Turned Democrat, Rawlings, Dies Age 73
Ghana Ex-Military Ruler Turned Democrat, Rawlings, Dies Age 73
Former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings, who reinvented himself as a democrat after leading a military regime in the 1980s, has died at the age of 73.
Rawlings led a junta from 1981 to 1992 and later won presidential elections in 1992 and 1996. He died Thursday at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in the capital, Accra, from a short, undisclosed illness, President Nana Akufo-Addo said in a statement.
Despite coming to power through a military coup, he was credited for laying the groundwork for a democracy that’s among Africa’s most stable and competitive. At the same time, his military regime was marked by the executions of eight senior officers, including three former heads of state.
Still, he was later known as a man of the people who fondly called him JJ, and echoed his signature phrase, “probity, accountability, and transparency,” which he said guided all his actions.
That popularity extended beyond his native Ghana. When the young leaders of a Malian junta held meetings with regional leaders in Accra to negotiate a democratic transition after an Aug. 18 coup, they paid Rawlings a visit at his home. He advised them to “empower the people to own their political climate and improve on the quality of multi-party democracy,” he said in a statement at the time.
Ghana’s ruling New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress, founded by Rawlings, have dominated politics since 1992 with many previous ballots that have been close. Former President John Mahama, who is looking to win power back from Akufo-Addo as the NDC’s candidate in Dec. 7 elections, suspended a campaign tour after getting news of Rawlings’ demise.
“A tree has fallen, and Ghana is poorer for this loss,” Akufo-Addo said in a statement. He also suspended campaigning.
Rawlings is survived by his wife, Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings, the presidential candidate of the smaller National Democratic Party, and three children, including lawmaker Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings.
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