Rawlings urges international media to report accurately on Ghana

Former President Jerry Rawlings on Thursday urged western governments and the international media to do diligent reportage of events in Ghana.

He argued that western governments and their media were turning the other way "on serious issues such as corruption, human rights abuses, intimidation and rule of fear”. Former President Rawlings, who was speaking at a press conference in Accra, said he now aspired to greater principles than clinging on to power.

He said power had a way of making one to feel invincible giving one the urge to cling on to power, "but the truth is that I have no urge to have power and I am doing nothing to come back to power. "I have never and would never go anywhere to look for money to plot a coup.

What I have been doing over the years is to tell the truth about the state of corruption and abuse of human rights in the country that is going on, on the blind side of both local and foreign media; with the western governments notably the U.S. and U.K."

Former President Rawlings said he would not stop doing this until the government sat up and began to attend to the development needs of Ghanaians.

He said US President George Bush's constant praising of President John Agyekum Kufuor without critically examining the state of governance, was a systematic way of creating a culture of impunity, where the government would begin to think that it could get away with anything it did.

He alleged that CNN's Jeff Koinenge was whisked away to Iraq in 2001, just when he was preparing to do documentaries on the human rights, corruption and the rot in the judiciary in Ghana. "These are some of the machinations that when I talk about, I am accused of plotting against the government."

Asked if he ever proposed to the then President-elect John Agyekum Kufuor to use his (Rawlings’) Ministers since they had several years of governance experience; Former President Rawlings said:

"I only casually suggested Mr Paul Victor Obeng, who had a great sense of governance issues then, to be part of a transitional body in order to avoid a vacuum during the period of transition from the National Democratic Congress to the New Patriotic Party.
"Ladies and gentlemen, is this something wrong? It was only a suggestion and they had the right to decide on what to do."

Former President Rawlings said he welcomed the efforts of religious bodies to patch up relations between him and President Kufuor. "However, they must first ensure that they do not just bandage a wound. They must first clean it, and put medication before bandaging it.

They must also work to right all the wrongs they have committed against innocent people across the country."

He said the National Reconciliation Commission was unable to reconcile the nation, and the security agencies were unable to arrest the killers of the Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, the Overlord of Dagbon Traditional Area, and 30 others in Yendi.