Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has condoled with the family and people of Ghana on the death of her former leader and resident, Jerry John Rawlings, saying he dedicated his life to the growth of Ghana and the African continent. Obasanjo, in a condolence letter to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Ado, a copy of which was made available to newsmen through his special assistant on Media, Kehinde Akinyemi, on Thursday eulogised the former leader. He said that Rawlings “was passionate about peace, security and leadership issues in Africa.”
According to Obasanjo, “Former President Rawlings will be missed for his exemplary lead- ership across Africa but particularly for his contributions to nation-building in the Republic of Ghana where he served, first as the military head of state of the country from 1981 to 1992 and later as a democratically-elected president from 1992-2000. “Like many of his contemporaries too, former President Rawlings provided the much-needed leadership and direction which impacted positively on the social stability and democratic progress recorded thus far in Ghana.
A quintessential patriot and courageous leader, he will be remembered for his critical role in the evolution of modern democratic Ghana. “As you know, I worked very closely with our departed brother within the remaining two years of his completing his second term in office, i.e.1999-2000 and during which time I had become a democratically-elected President of Nigeria.
I found in him a reliable friend, ally and confidant. We worked together under the auspices of African Union (AU) with constructive contributions at the various fora in our joint efforts at charting a new future for Africa particularly in tackling the scourge of malaria in our continent using the platform of the African Summit on Roll Back Malaria where his participation was quite active and the quality of his contributions enriched our deliberations and pointed the way forward in dealing with the disease.
He was passionate about peace, security and leadership issues in Africa. “It must also be on record that Rawlings played a key role in furthering the actualisation of the objectives of the Africa Leadership Forum (ALF), a non-governmental organisation which I found- ed in 1988 to develop leadership capacities in Africa in order to increase productivity of major ac- tors in government, parliament, business and civil society.
