Jerry Rawlings

So I've got fond memories.

And it was a great news time because there had been a coup led by a guy called Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings.

that attracted attention around the world about a new wave of junior officer coups.

And then I used to drive down the coast to Nigeria, which was also going through a cycle of military takeovers.

Efrisa amrena besinne.

Eh, obekaya yacheche musu evacuations ayeye wo Ghana no. Eh, if President JJ Rawlings abreso eton abra, eh, Liberia, Sierra Leone, ntukesi ye.

Ghana government eye evacuations bebriye.

Stana COVID soba ye.

Uh, help, help me out here.

When Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings was the president of Ghana, he, 'cause he would stop by our studios.

He'd come to LA every, every year with his wife, and then following that, his wife would come to LA, uh, every year.

What year, what year, what year are we talking about? That was the '90s or the '80s?

He has become relevant.

If I mention somebody like Jerry John Rawlings, the only thing that comes to mind is revolution.

Yeah.

Relevant.

We saw that even in, in Ghana.

Uh, the, this, the violence in Ghana was in no way compared to Liberia, but Rawlings was finishing up.

In fact, by '96, '97, Rawlings had left.

He has transitioned.

You now had John Kufuor, uh, John, John, yeah, John, uh, Raw- Jerry, John Rawlings had transitioned and turned over power to, to, to, to the next president in Ghana.

It's, uh, the same with, with, the same with, uh, uh, Nigeria, where President, um, Olusegun Obasanjo, who was previously a military leader in 19, in 1979, I think, when he was in prison or so.

I need to get my facts right.

Are they going to forfeit the constitution governing the party and what the party constitution is saying and still go ahead to allow Chairman Moon to contest? Now don't forget that they are filing for his nomination, but it is not only Chairman Moon to me.

that wants to become um the national chair of the party we have the likes of pola focal we have the likes of mm crabby we have the like of bredu we have the likes of other people who also have the interest to contest now when we take polar focal for instance polar focal has also been in the party for some time I mean, way back in the 1970s when he was an activist and when he, I mean, rose against the, when Jerry John Rawlings wanted to overthrow Dr. Hilary Mann and then he said no.

I mean, he was being sentenced and then he found his way out of the country.

After some time, after many years, he came back around 2000 and then he came back to his party.

We're going around in cycles.

And so after the 31st December revolution with Jerry John Rawlings in 1992, The Commission for Democracy did a survey, and all Ghanaians said we want to go back to democratic rule, constitutional rule.

And so we took the 1992 constitution onto ourselves.

And the good thing about it is we have two dominant political forces, and all of us accept that democracy is the way to go.

I'm flashy.

I'm an I'm as John.

So now I bought what what the bought what what? No one.

And it becomes when you say kidney stones.

Mm.

Nɛ hyɛɛ wo ma ho fɛ? Me nim sɛ na wo wɔ ka ya.

Aunty Jerry John Rawlings se.

[laughs]

And the political leadership in those countries stepped up in a massive way.

In Ghana, the head of state, Jerry John Rawlings, threw the full weight of his government behind the effort.

He didn't just sign papers.

He physically toured the country.

The eradication timeline was effectively paralyzed by the war.

Recognizing that traditional health channels had completely failed, Jimmy Carter stepped into the diplomatic void.

Leveraging his stature as a former head of state, he flew to the region and initiated direct, intensive negotiations with both sides of the conflict.

He sat down with the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, and he negotiated with the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, John Garang.