JJ Responds To Media Reports On Wife's Wealth

Rawlings has responded in anger at reports in the Crusading Guide about his wife’s finances by linking the report to the government’s agenda of peddling lies. He said the government is known for telling lies. In a back-handed cheeky riposte, he said that the NPP government is struggling to live up to the high level of integrity that the NDC government left and is struggling to cope.

“They are jealous of our legacy of high integrity, with the high standards we set. This is what is bothering them and they are doing everything in their power to bring us down. But I say don’t fabricate. If they want to bring us down, they should use facts. They should bring evidence, but look into their history... Lying is what the NPP has always done”.

He said: “some of these papers are lying agents of an NPP government that is perpetually lying. They came to power through lying. You don’t have to govern through lying. They should at least learn to be truthful, learn to show some respect to the intelligence of Ghanaians.”

JJ went on to say that his wife does not even know the banks that are being referred to in the publications and has written to the banks to furnish her with details on whether she has any savings at that bank. The bank should tell the world, he insisted.

He went on to refer to an earlier publication in the paper, which had a beautiful picture of him in a pool in Switzerland, describing it as another fabrication.

“Tell me which black man would go and swim in the cold waters of Switzerland?”

Overall Ghanaians are beginning to doubt that the NDC government was as guilty as they had been made to believe as 20 months on, no Cabinet Minister or top government official has been exposed or convicted despite the numerous investigative agencies set up.

These agencies are supposed to supplement the existing institutions like SFO, CHRAJ, Police, the most notorious being the James Quarshie-led team under the direct control of the Minister of Finance, Mr. Yaw Osafo Maafo, which has been terrorising people with often jaundiced and inaccurate allegations and reports but suppressing hot turf wars and infighting.

Opinion polls posted on the internet by the most popular and highly visited Ghanaian-internet website run by a Norway-based Ghanaian working for Nokia and a couple of Dutch nationals who sponsor the site called Working Wheels - a significant heavy duty trucks sales company - based in Holland, showed majority of Ghanaians saying that Rawlings’ speech was not seditious or treasonable.

A few took shots at the NPP government for failing to address pressing economic issues and over-playing the Rawlings matter. The general sentiment even in America and Europe is a thinning in the massive support-base of the NPP and the slow realization that nothing is happening to improve the lot of Ghanaians. Their families in Ghana obviously tell them about the wilting economy, and the frequent trips of President Kufuor along with Obasanjo, which have become issues of serious concern.

Rawlings on HIPC

Flt Lt. J.J. Rawlings says going HIPC was an act of political expediency by the Kufuor administration. He told his hosts in London that the government was wallowing in so much mal-administration that had been catalogued. He promised to send his interviewers the catalogue of misdeeds that may have precipitated the decision to go under the HIPC initiative.

NB: Kweku Baako who is back from a trip abroad insists that he has more information on the Rawlings’ wealth stashed in banks. He has once again dared the Rawlings’ to send him to court. Mr Baako says he is preparing to lodge complaints with the Serious Fraud Office and Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice.