I bear Rawlings a grudge for ousting Limann – Elizabeth Ohene

Former Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education in the Kufuor administration, Elizabeth Ohene has told STARR CHAT on STARR 103.5 that she harbours a grudge against former President Jerry Rawlings for overthrowing President Hilla Limann of the third Republic.

Before his overthrow, Dr Limann’s PNP had been in power for just a little over two years after Rawlings had handed over power to him after his June 4, 1979 coup that overthrew General Fred Akuffo.

Before the June 4, 1979 coup, Rawlings had been arrested, imprisoned and sentenced to die after a botched coup on May 15, 1979.

But before he could be executed, his friends in the Ghana military, led by Junior Officers and the ranks, overthrew the then military government of General Fred Akuffo in the 1979 coup.

The Junior Officers and the ranks set Rawlings free from prison and installed him as head of the new government - the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC). The AFRC handed over power to Dr. Hilla Limann, who won the popular vote in the election to establish the Third Republic.

He made a comeback a couple of years later on December 31, 1981 and overthrew Dr Limann and then headed the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime for eleven years before running for president as a civilian and winning two separate elections in 1992 and 1996.

Ohene, who went into exile and worked with the BBC during Rawlings’ long rule, told STARR CHAT host Bola Ray that she had qualms with Rawlings’ usurpation of the mandate of the Ghanaian people when he ousted Limann.

“What I have against him is this, that the people of Ghana voted for the PNP Government, Dr Hilla Limann, whom I did not support – this is a matter of public record – I didn’t think he was doing very well at all; I kept saying it every day…but the people of Ghana had voted for him, he had a four-year mandate.

“He had done two years and three months and it was up to the people of Ghana at the end of the four-year mandate to vote him out if they thought he wasn’t doing well, it was not the business of Flt Lt Jerry Rawlings or anybody for that matter to overthrow him, that is what I had against him,” Ohene explained.