JJ Rawlings: June 22,1947 – November 12, 2020

By Abubakar Hashim

After Kwame Nkrumah, nobody in Ghana’s chequered 63 year independence, has touched the pulse of Ghanaians as JJ Rawlings. What makes Ghana tick today, is the foresight of JJ.

Born of a Scottish father and a Ghanaian mother, he brought a new dawn in Ghanaian politics, by imbibing new ways of articulating and executing administrative programs through the lenses of development approach and strategy.

Though he commenced his rule in a military era, by executing eight senior government officials, three military Heads of State inclusive, his successive civilian government, is on record, as one the lasting legacies in Ghana’s contemporary history, through a private sector led economic growth strategy, that, today makes Ghana tick and an economic growth model in West Africa.

His death early this morning will, definitely, leave behind a deep scar on the faces of, not only Ghanaians but Africans as well, as his” Rawlings Foundations” are scattered all over Africa, to promote development strategies to minimise chronic poverty in the continent