He can be domineering, vindictive and dominating – Ahwoi on Rawlings’ personality

Professor Kwamena Ahwoi, an active member of Jerry John Rawlings’ government has made some interesting revelations about his personality.

Ahwoi served as a Local Government and Foreign Minister and is believed to be one of Rawlings’ trusted appointees.

In a book which he details his working relationship with the man who ruled Ghana for

Read full articlenearly two decades, Ahwoi described the personality of the former president as “dominating, mesmerising and nearly hypnotising for first-time listeners and audiences”.

He talked up Rawlings as an industrious and energetic person who worked extremely hard.

Awhoi in the ‘Working with Rawlings’ book explained that the former PNDC chairman is a good person to have as a friend but once you are in his bad books, he tends to be ‘vindictive’.

“Once he is your friend, he would like his enemies to be your enemies and therefore if you keep him, you would be keeping a curse as his enemies will become your enemies”.

He observed that Rawlings’ charisma made him appealing to anyone who crossed paths with him, adding that the former president is a ‘natural leader”.

Ahwoi said while Rawlings’ first impressions are always positive, a deeper relationship with him reveals a man who is nothing but ‘vindictive and fearsome’.

“He can be domineering, vindictive, and fearsome. The nearest analogy will be the Akan proverb about the bird “Santrofi” or nightjar, in English, belonging to the family Caprimulgidae which proverb states that “Santrofi amoma, wokye no a, w’akye mmusuo; wo gyae no a, w’agyae adee’ loosely translated as “the nightjar bird, if you catch it, you have caught a curse; if you let it go, you have let go of something precious”.

On his administrative acumen, Ahwoi revealed that Rawlings most of the time appeared clueless and disinterested in technical issues on policies and other things.

“In my encounters with him at PNDC meetings and cabinet meetings, I could tell that he did not understand many of the technical issues that used to be debated. Often, he would feign disinterest and be looking through the window or playing with his toy planes”.

“But once he got a sense of direction of the meeting, he would jump on board and ensure the implementation of the decision or the policy”, Prof. Ahwoi added.