How Jerry John Rawlings seized power and transitioned Ghana to democratic rule

 JERRY JOHN RAWLINGS COUPS & RESTORATION OF DEMOCRACY

Jerry John Rawlings was born in Accra on 22 June 1947 to a Scottish farmer and a Ghanaian mother. He attended Achimota secondary school, where he excelled on the polo pitch. In 1968, he enrolled in the military academy at Teshie, near Accra, and was later sent to a flight training school.

By the time Rawlings had been promoted to flight lieutenant in 1978, he had become politically active. Ghana, the first African country to become independent from Britain, was suffering food shortages, inflation and economic stagnation.

Rawlings vented his anger at what he saw as the indiscipline, corruption and mismanagement of the military regime. Buoyed by this support, Rawlings launched his coup attempt in May 1979. It failed and he was arrested and sentenced to death. He escaped from jail by the help of junior officers and other ranks and overthrew the country's military leader, General Fred Akuffo.

The AFRC had vowed to hold Ghana's former leaders to account. General Fred Akuffo, some senior judges as well as other officers were executed. Rawlings initiated an election within four months of his coup. The newly formed People's National Party, led by Hilla Limann, came to power.

However, Limann failures to turn Ghana's economy round which brought his time in office to an end. With foreign debt spiralling and inflation at more than 140%, public discontent began to spill over into unrest. On 31 December 1981, Rawlings staged another coup that brought a new government called Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), to power.

Between 1983 and 1987, Rawlings survived five coup attempts. A government clampdown, in which opposition leaders were arrested and imprisoned, this aroused fierce anger among human rights campaigners around the world.

The situation was made even worse when a million Ghanaians were expelled from neighbouring Nigeria. But, by the early 1990s, his reforms had led the country towards a strong economic recovery that made him win Ghana's presidential election in 1992.

His landslide victory, with 58% of the vote, was judged fair by the Commonwealth and the Organisation of African Unity. And, thanks mainly to the country's new-found economic stability, he was re-elected in another landslide in 1996.

He boosted Ghana's international image by contributing many of its troops to UN peacekeeping operations, most notably in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Lebanon and Iraq.

In 2001, his second term completed, Rawlings took an almost unprecedented step for an African leader and resigned from office. Though he called for positive defiance against the government in 2002, an act for which he was questioned by police, Rawlings did nothing to secure a return to power.

In later years, Rawlings campaigned for African nations to have their international debts written off. And in 2010 he was named as the African Union envoy to Somalia.

Jerry Rawlings' legacy is controversial and he divided opinion domestically and in the wider world. His detractors accused him of torture, corruption and worse. To his supporters, he brought order, security and prosperity to Ghana.

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