Convenor of the Social Justice Movement Nyeya Yen has rubbished the widely held view of former President Jerry John Rawlings as one who stood for social justice, arguing that the former leader’s probity and accountability ideals were rhetoric.
Though Rawlings trumpeted social justice and took draconian actions including execution of persons accused of perpetrating injustice, he enabled plundering of state resources under his reign and persecuted anyone who had dared to stand against such acts, he stated.
“People imagined that there was a great revolution, there was an accountability, it is all a farce. I would say there was no accountability under Rawlings. There was more rhetoric.”
He added, “There was more rhetoric, because note that some of the people who served under Rawlings also came out as millionaires. The E.T. Mensah, me and E.T. Mensah were in the university eating groundnuts at the cafeteria together in Legon. So people like that became millionaires”.
Nyeya Yen, who said he was a member of the PDC/WDC of the PNDC military government led by Rawlings, recalled how the military turned democratically elected leader kicked some of them out of the junta and even executed others because they insisted on good governance devoid of corruption.
“I was a member during that period and we fought to restructure this country but the Rawlings group did not believe in those ideals. When they found out that they could not get quick money, they quickly removed some of us, killed some of us, and some of us, like me, that were lucky, ran away,” he stated.
He was speaking on the independence of Ghana and factors that hindered the country’s development since gaining self-rule.
The social activist said while Rawlings portrayed as pursuing progressive policies and working in the interest of the masses, he was living lavishly with his cronies and close associates squandering state resources and enriching themselves.
He accused Rawlings of eroding the progress the country had made under its first President.
