Politician and communication consultant, Fritz Baffour says the sorrow that has gripped Ghanaians following the passing of former President Jerry John Rawlings is indicative that Ghana has lost an ‘iconic’ person who had the country at heart.
Eulogizing the late former President whose four-day state burial is currently underway, Mr. Baffour explained that the many people trooping to the Accra International Conference Centre to pay their last respects to the statesman show that a great tree had indeed fallen.
“It’s expected because he was a very much part and parcel of our life. Since 1979, he’s been our iconic figure and a very powerful human being in our scheme of things. So it is expected of Ghanaians. Some of them, the only person they have known is Jerry John Rawlings so this is the time for them to come to the reality that he is no more. But what we pray for is that his ideas and what he stood for will remain in our memory, and we will act on it”, he told Bernard Avle on the Point of View.
Fritz Baffour, a former Minister of state and Member of Parliament also spoke highly of Rawlings describing him as “very much a person who loved this country and if you love your country, sometimes you want to change the way you look at things. It’s an evolution of the mind. Rawlings was a very introspective person. He was a very restless person. He was almost on the move trying to do something”.
“He had a hyperactive mind. He is hard-working and very curious about life. He was almost a mystic in the way he thought of things. His attitude to governance and friends. There was always a mystical element, so he came in a way he thought if he had the choice he would have gone; he came in like a meteorite, and he’s gone out into the horizon”, he further stated.
Remembering Rawlings
Speaking on what many describe as the excesses of Mr. Rawlings, Fritz Baffour was of the view that many failed to come to terms with what the ex-military leader stood for at the time adding that he will be remembered in history as a man who yearned to correct the ills in society.
“Giants of his kind also have enemies. One can understand because he was very forthright, and they had very strong views, and sometimes we shoot off the cuff therefore if you are not ready of that or have other impressions of yourself you would actually raise on you. Though it is to be understood, it was also misunderstood by people dealing with him.”
He continued by saying, “history will place him as a very energetic person who changed the direction. I had always thought that the trajectory was going wrong, and he was the one who corrected the trajectory. His was inclusiveness for all Ghanaians and cared for the unfortunate, discriminated and neglected ones in our midst”.
Konadu’s complementarity
Touching on the role of Nana Kondau Agyeman-Rawlings, wife of the former President in the presidential affairs of at the time, Fritz Baffour elaborated that the love and complementarity between the two did so much for women and other social development.
“They loved and complemented each other. Jerry referred to her a lot because she is a very knowledgeable woman. She is an intellectual, very well-read, very well-spoken and opinionated. She is a wonderful woman in terms of the work she did for Ghana, the impact that she had on the development of women and in civil life was immense. It was a good team because they complemented each other. They were very powerful”, he revealed.
