Former Revolutionary Ghanaian President Rawlings Dies of COVID-19
Former military president of Ghana, Jerry Rawlings passed on Thursday after suffering from complications related to COVID-19, aged 73.
He was reported dead on November 12th, 2020 at Korlebu Teaching Hospital, specifically, the Cardiothoracic Unit, where he had been on admission at Korle Bu for about a week for an undisclosed illness, but Wikipedia said he developed complications due the COVID-19 disease.
Jerry John Rawlings was born on 22 June 1947.
He was a former Ghanaian military leader and subsequent politician who ruled the country from 1981 to 2001 and also for a brief period in 1979. He led a military junta until 1992, and then served two terms as the democratically elected President of Ghana.
Rawlings initially came to power in Ghana as a flight lieutenant of the Ghana Air Force following a coup d’état in 1979. Prior to that, he led an unsuccessful coup attempt against the ruling military government on 15 May 1979, just five weeks before scheduled democratic elections were due to take place.
After initially handing power over to a civilian government, he took back control of the country on 31 December 1981 as the Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).
In 1992, Rawlings 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 presidential candidate in 2000. He served as the African Union envoy to Somalia.
Rawlings was born in June 1947 in Accra, Ghana, to Victoria Agbotui, an Ewe from Dzelukope, Keta and James Ramsey John, a chemist from Castle Douglas in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland.
James Ramsey John was married in England to someone else and his descendants now live in Newcastle and London.
Rawlings attended Achimota School and a military academy at Teshie. Rawlings is married to Nana Konadu Agyeman, who he met while at Achimota College. They have three daughters: Zanetor Rawlings, Yaa Asantewaa Rawlings, Amina Rawlings; and one son, Kimathi Rawlings.
Share your thoughts on the story Former Revolutionary Ghanaian President Rawlings Dies of COVID-19 with Nigerian Sketch in the comments section below.
