• The late JJ Rawlings had a good relationship with President Akufo-Addo
• The two men, years back were at loggerheads over Rawlings’ courtesies
• Before his death, the two appeared together at different public events
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had a close relationship with former President Jerry John Rawlings in the latter years of the former leader.
So close had they become that meetings between the two of them showed very cordial relations and interactions, far from the frosty relations in the years after Rawlings handed over power in 2000.
For Victor Smith, a former aide of Rawlings and later Ghana’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, the latter-day relationship between the two men is something he has failed to wrap his head around.
In an interview that aired late last week on Accra-based CTV where he spoke extensively about the personality of Rawlings and working closely for him, Smith averred that Rawlings’ actions after leaving office became increasingly unpredictable especially when he started hobnobbing with the NDC’s main political opponent.
“It beats my mind, I can’t really tell when he (Rawlings) fell in love with him (Akufo-Addo) or tried to walk away from us. I don’t really know what happened,” he said.
About his personal spat with Rawlings which resulted in his expulsion from JJ’s office as a special aide, he said: “When he came to UK, we make up after he had sacked me from his office.
“We made up, sat down in London, had drinks and all that then I heard him doing what he was doing here, then I heard him again hobnobbing with the opposition then I went against him on-air and that is where we broke off again.
“I wish I had made up with him because there were certain things that I wanted to tell him had happened and he was not aware of, there were certain very serious things that I had to tell him,” Smith added.
Smith is unenthused about the bromance between the two especially citing how the current President at the time the Minister of Foreign Affairs had withdrawn all courtesies of Rawlings at a time the Kufuor government was really targeting him by going after his wife and other close associates.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
