NDC Vice Chair begs Rawlings for forgiveness


The National Vice Chairperson of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Anita Desosoo has appealed to the party’s founder, Jerry John Rawlings to pardon the executives of the party who have wronged him.

She knelt before Rawlings on Monday in Accra when the party marked the 39th anniversary of the June 4 uprising.

According to her, the founder is the father of the party and must be acknowledged as such.

“If you are a leader, be prepared to say I’m sorry. If you are a child, be prepared to say daddy I’m sorry. So I will take this opportunity on behalf of the party to kneel down before my dad (Rawlings). Please forgive us. Let’s come together to build this country,” she pleaded.

Jerry Rawlings who was the country’s first democratically-elected president of the Fourth Republic refused to campaign for the NDC during the 2016 general elections.

Rawlings took the decision because he felt the current crop of NDC leaders had strayed from the party’s ideals which included transparency, probity and accountability.

But Anita Desosoo urged Rawlings to let bygones be bygones.

“…Now to my father, I know [as] your children we have erred, and I also know that you are a human being. You have also done something that may not be right. And I was so happy when you brought out a statement rendering an apology. You are a hero. This shows that what you have thought me is still within me,” she added.

The June 4th Uprising was a violent uprising in Ghana in 1979 that arose out of a combination of corruption, bad governance, frustration among the general public, and lack of discipline and frustrations within the Ghanaian army.

It was sparked when the then military government of the Supreme Military Council (SMC II) of General F K. Akuffo put then flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings on public trial for attempting to overthrow the government on May 15th 1979.
 
This happened because Rawlings was a junior soldier in the Ghanaian Army who with other soldiers were refused to be given their salaries.
 
Flt Lt Rawlings turned the trial against the government by accusing it of massive corruption and requesting his fellow accused be set free as he was solely responsible for the mutiny.
 
He was incarcerated for sentencing. 
His diatribe resonated with the entire nation as there was massive suffering.

In the night of June 3, 1979, junior military officers including Major Boakye Djan broke into the jail where Rawlings was being held and freed him, and ostensibly marched him to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, to make an announcement. 

The first time the public heard from Mr. Rawlings was a now legendary statement that he Rawlings had been released by the junior officers and that he was under their command. 

He requested all soldiers to meet with them at the Nicholson Stadium in Burma Camp in Accra.

The entire nation went up in uproar. 

Soldiers rounded up senior military officers including three former heads of states, General F. K Akuffo, Ignatious Kutu Acheampong and Afrifa for trial they were subsequently executed by firing squad.

Flt Lt Rawlings was appointed the head of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) by the revolting Junior military officers to run the country until election was completed.

Three months after, Rawlings handed over Power to Dr. Hilla Limann. 

But Rawlings again overthrew Limann on 31 December 1981.
 
Though the June 4th became a noted date in Ghana's history, it has been said to be a date that brings pain to some people who either lost loved ones, lost businesses or had to flee the country.

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