Ebun Olowu
Ghana’s former President, Jerry John Rawlings, has died at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital Accra, in the early hours of Thursday, November 12, 2020.
He was 73 years old.
Rawlings had been on admission at the Teaching hospital since Sunday, according to sources.
Jerry John Rawlings had buried his mother, Madam Victoria Agbotui, in October 2020.
Madam Agbotui died at the age of 101.
Born on June 22, 1947, 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.
Until his death he served as the African Union envoy to Somalia.
