Inside the trenches with Jerry Rawlings – Part 3

Those who moved heaven and earth to vilify and destroy me but failed shamefully in the Obuasi Constituency from 2009 to 2012 must now come out and say what they know about the genesis of the great NDC since they told me that I have been destroying the NDC because of the articles I have been writing and published on Ghanaweb.com.

I have now taken on the Rawlingses with whom I worked for - from October 1979 to 31st Dec. 1981. My detractors in the Obuasi Constituency should also come out and tell Ghanaians what they know after the June 4 uprising or shut up for good - since they were not part of it. If you hate the articles I write, you can do what you like, but I am not writing to please anybody or group of persons in this country because I write to provoke national debate and the NDC is bigger than any individual, group or stomach politicians

May 15th and June 4, 1979

The mutiny that was contained on May 15th 1979 was revived and nurtured by not only a Military Court Martial, but also the general education given to the ordinary soldiers by the brilliant defense put up by Jerry Rawlings at his trial in the Burma Hall.

June 4, 1979 was not a regular military coup. It had nothing of the features of the 1966 or 1972 coups for a number of reasons. The most important of these was that, it was not staged at the instigation of any politician nor like the 1966 coup master minded from abroad eg– the C.I.A of the United States of America.

That coup was the direct result of the disintegration of the Ghana Armed Forces, the contradictions in a British trained Armed Service in the aftermath of its direct intervention of its top officers in politics.

June 4 was essentially a moral revolt of the ranks who were disgusted by both the climate of dissipation and corruption that has engulfed the Armed Forces and the desperate limits to which their officers had driven the nation.

That the architects of June 4 call it a revolution is merely a simplification of the ardent desire to end the drift that had engulfed the country and punish those who are responsible.

It was marked by a moral outrage, the vehemence of which had never been experienced in the history of Ghana. My duty as a card carrying member of the June 4 movement is to let the youths know, since they constitute 70% of Ghana's population.

If some detractors in the Obuasi Constituency should gang up to stop me from writing such articles by telling me that my articles are destroying the NDC in Obuasi, let them burn the sea if they can do so-because they have a misconceived agenda and are working against the victory of Prez. Mahama and to the NDC but they would not succeed.

The June 4 uprising was a coup with a difference. The formation of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) was based on one major principle: House cleaning exercise. The moral outrage of the ordinary soldier had spawned a massive FEAR that was in turn the CHILD OF TERROR that accompanied the outrage and the situation at that time demanded it in 1979.

My role as a June 4 member

When Jerry Rawlings handed over power to President Limann on 24th Sept, 1979, Dr. Limann was persuaded by Britain, a foreign country that Rawlings and the June 4th action was a threat to his government.

Dr. Limann and his advisers did not appreciate the fact that without June 4th, the so-called Third Republic with him as President, could not have come about. In the same way that without the June 4 and 31st December revolutions, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) with them as Constituency Executives in Obuasi could not have come about, but there are some of the party constituency, executives exposing their ignorance by telling me that the articles I always write are destroying the NDC; Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

Now, that was the reason why the power brokers in Dr. Limann’s PNP government wanted a return to the old corrupt habits. It was necessary to launch a psychological attack on June 4th to discredit it with lies, false accusations to destroy its moral importance.

Various tactics were resorted to. That was the main reason why I joined the June 4 movement and became a card bearing member of the Ashanti Regional Secretariat in 1979, to defend the gains of the June 4 uprising by supporting Jerry Rawlings through Rain or Shine, because chains of degrees does not make one a good politician.

Before the new government had actually settled down, noises were made on the air about the unacceptability of the transitional provisions and illegalities perpetrated by the AFRC. This was part of a psychological war being launched on the moral foundations of June 4th and the moral expectations the people of Ghana held out for the new “democratic government of the P.N.P led by Dr. Hilla Limann.

Next – Rawlings was arrested and detained for a night and released only when Dr. Limann’s government sensed that keeping him longer or even making an attempt on his life might lead to very serious repercussions.

Before then, he was summarily dismissed from the Air Force on the same day on which he had had a friendly audience with President Hilla Limann at the Castle. The Rest is History.

If I am educating the youth and some people in Obuasi, doesn’t like it, they should go hang or burn the sea. Keep your fingers crossed, I Shall Return.

Writer's e-mail: clementsang@yahoo.com