No one wants a coup

Flt-Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, has defended his position in his recent interview with the BBC and declared: "No amount of barking, cowardly threats, insults or noisy sounds by paid callers and newspapers can change an ethical truth, proven over and over again by historical events."

In an exclusive interview with the Ghana Palaver in reaction to comments raised by his opponents over his advice in the interview, he said that "although they lack the courage to hear or face the truth, they have the courage to tell cowardly lies".

Referring to the protests raised against his allusion to a possible revolt, if the situation in the country is not calmed down, he said, "Action begat action. Just as positive action will have a positive reaction, so also will negative action engineer a corrective reaction. That was what the June 4 revolt was all about.. that was what the 1966 coup was about…and that was what the 1972 coup was about.

"Nobody, be he a civilian or military wants a coup or revolt in this country. You don't have to be a physicist, a psychologist or a Budhist to understand the basic law of nature. When we were in office, the opposition and their media tried everything to destabilize the NDC Government, but we ignored most of their agitations and calls of incitement. We on our part, are trying to advise and explain about what not to do, in order to avoid the causes of revolt, but they choose to give this simple message a cruel spin for their own political motives."

The former President asked his opponents "to clean their ears", once again, for a single logical truth."

Ghana he said, is one of the most stable countries in the world, in the sense that no amount of money can be used to induce the security forces to embark on a coup.

He said no one in a quest for power can engineer a coup. "No one will follow such a person," he added.

"Our security service personnel are people with a strong conscience, but at the same time, any Government that becomes dictatorial, oppressive or corrupt, faces a coup or revolt, once the national political atmosphere begins to crave for help or salvation, in which case, not even the angels can prevent the divine intervention of a coup or revolt.

"A leadership of sound integrity is the only way to keep coups and revolts at bay", he stressed, adding:

"The 1966 coup was a divine intervention, the 1972 coup was also a divine intervention. The lack of a coup in the latter dreadful years of the Acheampong regime, resulted in the divine intervention of the June 4 revolt.

"Without God's help, the depth of anger, thirst for blood and violence would have been much, much worse," he stated.