It has come to light that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo took very good care of the late President Jerry John Rawlings both before and after he was elected in December of 2016.
Stephen Atubiga, a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who has since been suspended from the organisation, claims that President Akufo-Addo took better care of Jerry John Rawlings than either of the two previous presidents, Atta Mills or John Mahama.
When Rawlings was still alive, John Mahama and Atta Mills did not take as good of care of Rawlings as Akufo-Addo did. This is something that I can say with absolute certainty. Rawlings was one of Akufo-Addo's closest friends, and the latter took extremely excellent care of him. He responded by saying, "I am aware of what I am telling you."
This statement was made by Atubiga after Akufo-Addo revealed that he had a strong connection with the former President despite the fact that they had initially been "enemies."
In the wake of the passing of former President Rawlings, Akufo-Addo delivered the following eulogy:
"It was no secret that the relationship that existed between the two of us, right from the heady days of 1979, through to my brief period in exile, his assumption of office as the 1st President of the 4th Republic, the historic Kume Preko demonstrations, my period as Attorney General and Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Kufuor administration, to my being elected 2008 NPP presidential candidate, was one of open animosity. It was no secret that the relationship that existed between the two of us." We have quite different points of view!!
"However, as time went on, things started to alter. We eventually grew to appreciate one another's contributions and had a significant amount of success in comprehending the other's point of view. Our shared dedication to serving the public was one of the things that brought us together.
My trip to his house in Ridge in 2012 marked the beginning of a thawing of relations between us, which ultimately resulted in the development of a friendship that has lasted for the greater part of eight (8) years. In point of fact, one of the very first people I paid a courtesy call on after the people of Ghana voted for me in that year's elections and placed their trust in me for the very first time was His Excellency Jerry John Rawlings. This occurred in 2016 when the election took place.
"From the day I took office until the day he was called home by his Creator, he remained a good friend and a source of sound advice. I will miss him," said the current president. I was well aware that if I was confronted with a challenging situation during my presidency, I could rely on his vast store of experience and expertise. During those times, he came through for me and helped me out.
"He made a symbolic gesture towards me during the funeral of his late mother, Madam Victoria Agbotui, which took place on the Forecourt of the State House on the 24th of October, 2020. It was going to be our final time spending time together. As the family's lone surviving son, he was singled out by the clergy to participate in some extra prayers. He commanded the men of God to wait, and then he motioned for me to approach him so that we may receive the special prayers together. As I stood next to him, he leaned over and murmured in my ear, "I reminded them that they should pray for you also because you had also lost your mother." I heard him well. This has a profound effect on me.
"It is for a good reason that his well-known, oft-cited ideals of "probity and accountability", in which he invested a great deal of his political capital, have been enshrined in the Constitution of the 4th Republic, and, together with "Freedom and Justice", the words of our nation's motto, constitute the foundational principles on which social order is to be developed in Ghana."
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