Rawlings to replace 31st December anniversary planner

The office of former President Jerry John Rawlings says the head of the June 4 and 31st December anniversary planning committee has been asked to step down.

A statement issued by Kobina Andoh Amoakwa of the Communications Directorate of the former President’s office says a new head is to be announced after consultations with cadres and other planning committee members.

Rawlings who led the two famous putsches to, as he puts it, correct the wrongs foisted on the people by the maladministration of the political elites of the times, has consistently led cadres and party followers to mark those epochs.

The statement does not explain why the decision to replace the head of the anniversary planning committee, except hints are manifest from a paragraph in the statement which insinuates that the recently held 35th anniversary of the 31st December Revolution was not an avenue to promote any individual’s political ambition or agenda.

On the dais at the 35th anniversary of the 31st December Revolution. Rawlings (centre) and extreme right, Goozie Tanoh, are separated Huudu Yahaya while on Rawlings immediate right is Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo, Regional Minister.

Varied interpretations have been given the sudden, unannounced emergence of former cadre and ex-Rawlings ally, Mr. Goozie Tanoh of the Reform Party at the anniversary celebration held last Saturday at the Revolution Square, during which he sought to galvanize members of the National Democratic Congress to look to the future with hope.

Goozie, himself a former member of the NDC who broke away with others to establish the Reform Party in the year 2000 and who has since been off the open political radar, made very profound statements urging followers of the NDC not to despair over the party’s loss at the December 7 polls because there was hope, and that the loss had lessons that could only profit the party.

Goozie Tanoh

He also harped on some of the concerns that former President Rawlings had always pontificated at as wrongs that could hurt the NDC, including corruption and ‘monecracy’.

While his name was not officially on the programme, his address had since been interpreted in media commentaries as an indication of Goozie’s desire to return to mainstream politics and particularly as a display of his ambition to contest the leadership of the NDC as flagbearer at the next elections.