Former President Jerry John Rawlings has stated that the recent catalogue of allegations against him that have resurfaced in the media are a calculated effort by certain vested interests who feel intimidated and threatened by his level of integrity.
He said at 71 he has held onto his integrity for so long, is proud of it, and it is too late for him to compromise on what has brought him this far. It’s not for sale, he stated.
Flt Lt Rawlings expressed concern, however, that the attacks on him are rather an attack on the sense of purpose of the youth.
“I am not the one they are really after. You are the ones they are after. To break that tenacity, that belief in you,” he told a charged atmosphere at the Great Hall of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi on Saturday.
Delivering the keynote address at the 2018 KNUST SRC organized TEKTALK event, the former President said “When you maintain the solidity of your position and refuse to compromise, they naturally have a problem because you may have become so influential.
“The power of the influence that you wield I think threatens some people so that if they cannot buy you, if they cannot get you to compromise your position, you need to be destroyed, otherwise your word tomorrow could do damage to them, and move them out of office,” he said.
The former President responded to allegations by a so-called former bodyguard of his, stating that he was not his bodyguard but the driver of one of the armoured tanks captured during the 31st December 1981 uprising.
“We won that battle that day, but he became overexcited, took a tank and drove into some people, so I distanced myself from him. After that he became prey to some of the dissident elements.”
He said it was unfortunate that he is brought onto television to spew so much untruth and dared people of his ilk to do a polygraph test, enforcing the charge of how far vested interests would go to protect an agenda.
Former President Rawlings also referred to another who hid in his girlfriend’s room on June 4 1979 but has subsequently been put out as a hero of the uprising for 37 years. He said our children are reading about some of these falsehoods in history books and the time had come for some of these people to be exposed through the lie-dictator test.
The leader of the June 4 uprising and the 31st December Revolution, said during the 3rd Republic he was caricatured as a weed smoking young man to the extent that by 31st December 1981 many young people had taken up weed smoking because their hero purportedly smoked weed.
“I had to move from school to school to explain it was negative propaganda. That is the extent to which some people in their quest to consolidate their power will go. They did not care that they were destroying the kids in their quest to destroy Rawlings.”
The former President urged students to be politically potent and ask serious questions of national political leaders and query them when they fail to make their voices heard on issues of global inequality and abuse of the vulnerable as is happening in Palestine and Yemen.
The Founder of the National Democratic Congress also spoke about the damage of global warming and the need for young people to educate themselves adequately on its effects, stating it was necessary to re-cultivate the habit of tree planting to help ease the scourge of global warming.
Other speakers at the event where former Minister and Member of Parliament, Dr. Benjamin Kunbuor and popular newscaster and television presenter, Nana Aba Anamoah.
Source: graphic.com.gh
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papa J shd ***barred word***. we all knew he ordered the killing of the judges. look at who is talking about integrity here.
This is what happens when people who do wrong go unpunished. They begin to have a sense of self-righteousness. This man still has the effrontery to talk about integrity after all the atrocities him and his gang committed. SMH!!
So this is the bombshell!!!!!! he was talking about hmmmmm No comment
Rawlings, take a lie detector test yourself.
Ghanaians and political sensationalism...hmmm Anyway,i tot I hed Papa J say he was gonna drop some bombshell some weeks ago at this lecture...did I miss de bombshell?
Which integrity is this old man talking about? Take just one example: what was his answer and reaction the Abachar $5m scandal brook? How many years later and what has he now confessed? (it was not $5m but $3m and I used it for the country." Shame!!! why did you not admit to this then? Was that not a bigger crime than what you suppervised others to be killed for? Another example, you had people killed for having two toilets in their homes. How many do you have in your home now? And look at where you live and how much you have amassed for yourself. Stop talking about integrity and keep silent. Shammmmmmmmme!!!
Your negative integrity does not threaten anyone..... You are a murderer......you murdered people for doing no wrong. You then went aheard to l00t state money and sent your children to study abroad.....
I don't know we make time for the selfish and wicked Rawlings man. The likes of Akata Pore, Adebuga and Captain Joe Awuni are still alive and around. He should apologise for the killings under his watch or else we will take him on face to face. Enough of his shenanigans. He cannot wickedly manipulate anyone anymore. Amartey Quaye was sacrificed after they themselves gave him the pass to carry out the killings. Now they live a comfortable life but killed people for less that life style.
Look people should stop pampering this wicked manipulative Man. He used the likes of Matthew Adebuga, Akata Pore and captain Joe Awuni and turned around to try and execute them .Ghanaians should watch the interviews Adebuga and Adomako Nyamekye and Captain Joes granted on AndyDs Show and will see how evil this rawlings and his men could be. We should stop pampering him and tell him in the face that his days manipulating people for his self fish ends is over. If he has integrity as he claims , He should produce the Audio tapes of Amartey Qauye and the extra judicial killings. or else he should just keep quiet. Please stop pampering this wicked man.
Rawlings made it clear to ghanaians that he was not happy with what the late judges were doing by reviewing AFRC convicted cases. Nana konadu gave keys to the car for the operation. Amedeka is living a nice life and no ghanaian president had made any attempt to arrest him. Amartey qauye sacrifice his life for nothing