Amidu, president’s divorce and Jerry Rawlings’ shock in final days

“You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.” - Donald Rumsfield

If you want to know the content of a book, first look at its title. It was clear or should have been clear to the President, when he bought the book entitled “Martin Alamisi Burns Kaiser Amidu” that the storyline was going to be a remarkable cocktail of an unconventional, seemingly eccentric, confident, sporadic bullying, uncompromising, clever, highly temperamental, fearless, narcissistic and hint of betrayal.

In studies of the psychology of intelligence analysis, there is something called “Perception Bias”. To summarize it literally, it means something on the borderline of, “your eyes see what your brain is thinking and not what you are really looking at” or “If you wish something so bad, your brain and your eyes conspire to make you see what you wish to see and not what you are indeed looking at”.

For those who bought the President’s book in 2016 entitled ”He President William Nana Addo Dankwah Akuffo-Addo” they must have realized by now that it bears remarkable semblance to the former- angry, uncompromising, narcissistic, I don’t care, bullying, brazen, intimidating, State Capture, corruption and a hint of betrayal. Franklin Cudjoe of IMANI AFRICA captures it the best way “CORRUPTION HAS DEFEATED AMIDU”.

When Martin Amidu was hired by the President as the first head of the Office Of Special Prosecutor (OSP), many were those who danced and many were those who genuinely felt that Ghana’s ranking on Transparency International’s “Global Corruption Perception Index” was going to read ZERO.

If you don’t believe me, look at who the President appointed as the Board Chairperson of the OSP. It is Linda Ofori of Transparency International's local Chapter, Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII). The current NPP Communication Director, Yaw Boaben Asamoah who issued a statement in response to Amidu was once the Executive Secretary of GII until he was seconded to a project under the office of late Vice President Aliu Mahama. Yaw didn't come back to GII, he was captured and he JOINED THEM.

The enthusiasm which greeted Amidu’s appointment didn't last long and the nation woke up to an anti-climax of a movie we had barely begun watching.

But I told someone that the marriage between Amidu and the President won't last because the foundations upon which the marriage was rotating was weak, selfish, one-sided and grossly misrepresented. I said, they don't know Amidu.

By the very nature of Martin Amidu, he sees himself as very confident, independent, and more intelligent than the average Ghanaian. Martin doesn’t work well under supervision, in fact, he has to be the supervisor. Martin likes to have his way all or most of the time and when he does not, he unleashes the wrath of his explosive anger. Don’t get me wrong, these are not bad traits, those are traits you require of your anti-corruption Czar.

If you look at the story before the appointment of Amidu, he had damaged the NDC which he belonged to, broken ranks with them, endorsed their opponent who then became the President. What most people don't know is that Amidu kept an unbreakable bond with the Founder of the NDC- Jerry John Rawlings who himself out

of anger had shifted his camping site very close to the NPP to the chagrin of the NDC in the run-up to the 2016 elections.
Like a beautiful woman, Jerry was showing the NPP her beautiful thighs but not too much, the trick worked like magic, they couldn’t have enough.

Jerry Rawlings became the go-to person for advice, even though they didn't take most of his advice, they clamored to have him in their company and they showered him with unsolicited visits, praises and accolades.

Momentarily, Rawlings was flattered by all these, it is what he wanted from Kufour’s government, an opportunity to still help shape the destiny of Ghana, that didn't happen. It is what he wanted from his own party, it didn’t happen the way he would have wanted (to put it nicely).

At the end, the NPP is even fighting for the corpse of Jerry Rawlings because even in his death they still believe he possesses the magic political wand in an election that appears to be slipping from their grips.

IF Jerry Rawlings is not a Genius, tell me who is? In his death, he has succeeded in proving to the two biggest political parties in Ghana that he is one of the greatest and the cleverest Ghanaian politicians of all time.

The rumour mill even has it that the government quietly moved Jerry’s body from Korlebu to 37 Military hospital morgue for fear that the body might get missing.

When NPP emerged victorious, Amidu was the natural person to be the nation’s first OSP. Jerry supported it and a section of the NPP supported it and even the diplomatic community endorsed him. There is no doubt that Jerry Rawlings was Amidu’s pillar, he was the only one he could trust and confide in. Amidu shared a lot of his predicament at the OSP with Jerry Rawlings and unknown to the NPP, Jerry Rawlings was getting increasingly angry with what he was hearing and what he was witnessing as far as corruption in the current government was concerned.

Jerry Rawlings apparently followed the Agyapa investigation very closely and after the burial of his mother when he became aware of the gory details of the Agyapa deal, he was growing very distant from the NPP and feeling very betrayed.

Somebody in government even remarked that since he returned from the volta region after the burial of his mother he had become “some way”

A person was quoted as saying in Akan that “3y3 me s3 ayigbe fuo no ako sesa Jerry adwene” to wit, meaning the Ewe people changed Jerry's mind about the NPP when he attended his mothers funeral.

Unfortunately, Jerry, a father of this nation, the founder of the NDC is dead and gone, so the story of his last days will be told in full after his burial.

It was clear that when the President appointed Amidu as Ghana’s SP, the President was expecting that he would comb the regime of John Mahama with an anti-corruption brush as sensitive as a thermal imaging camera.

That did not happen because the NDC was not as corrupt as the NPP sold to Ghanaians. Perhaps the NPP mistook the passion with which Amidu pursued the Woyome case as hatred for NDC or widespread corruption in the NDC administration.

As stories and petitions of corruption within the NPP government began to flood the OSP and the media and public expectation of the OSP grew higher, the lack of inertia of the government had unfortunately slowed the pace of take-off of the OSP.


Amidu being Amidu quickly realized that if he didn't put his foot down, the government was going to draw rings around him and he would be seen as a villain, a pawn with nothing to show. After almost four years, Amidu had exhausted all the chapters of

“THE PRESIDENT WILLIAM ADDO DANKWAH AKUFFO-ADDO-2016” and he came to the grim realisation that whilst the president was buying fire insurance against himself, his government and his cousins indicted by the Agyapa report, he was trying to torch the farm of his opponent John Dramani Mahama, so he did the exact opposite, and he got the exact reaction he was expecting from the President-a feeling of betrayal and rage. Agyapa was Amidu’s only chance, the detail of the scandal was nauseating for both Amidu and Jerry Rawlings.

Amidu was horrified with the line up of the Agyapa deal, The president was in Goal, his cousin the Finance Minister was in Center Back and his other Cousin Gabby Asare Otchere Darko of Africa Legal Associates was in striking position supported by appointees linked to either Gabby or Ofori Atta.

That broke the camel's back for Jerry Rawlings and Amidu and the unfortunate death of Jerry Rawlings became the final straw.

You wished for a war on corruption, now you have it.