Memorial Mass for Rawlings to be held today in Accra
It has been a year already since the unfortunate passing of Ghana’s first president of the fourth republic, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings and the family will be commemorating it with a remembrance mass today Friday, November 12, 2021, at the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Adabraka, Accra.
The late Ghanaian leader passed away on November 12, 2021, at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital after a short illness.
Jerry John Rawlings was born on June 22, 1947.
He started his career as a military officer before venturing into politics to occupy the highest political office of the land and ruled Ghana from 1981 to 2001, and also for a brief period in 1979.
He ruled as a military leader after toppling the Hilla Limann government in 1981 and had Ghana under military leader until 1992. He then served two terms as the democratically elected President of Ghana before handing over to John Agyekum Kuffuor in January 2001.
Before that the successful September 1979 coup, he led an unsuccessful coup attempt against the ruling military government on May 15, 1979, just five weeks before a scheduled democratic elections were due to take place.
After handing power over to a civilian government, he assumed reigns of the country again on December 31, 1981, as the Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).
In 1992, he resigned from the military, founded the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and became the first President of the Fourth Republic. He was re-elected in 1996 for four more years.
After two terms in office, the limit according to the Ghanaian Constitution, Rawlings endorsed his Vice-President John Atta Mills as the presidential candidate in 2000 but he[Atta-Mills] lost the 2000 general elections to John Kuffour of the New Patriotic Party.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
