Journalism in the service of society

Jerry Rawlings: Exit of a Pan-Africanist
& Alhaji Balarabe Musa: 1936 – 2020

Jerry Rawlings: Exit of a Pan-Africanist

THE news of the death of the former Ghanaian leader, Jerry John Rawlings, came to us as a rude shock. Rawlings was said to have died of coronavirus related complications on Thursday November 12, 2020. He was aged 73. Rawlings is a towering figure amongst Africa’s great statesmen and a shining symbol of Pan-African nationalism. He was universally regarded as the man who led the Ghanaian Revolution which transformed the country in significant ways and paved the way for a more accountable polity.

Rawlings interrogated a number of issues that bordered on the Pan-Africanist re-assertion of the dignity of Africans and the inviolable rights of Africans to good governance in their respective countries. By his death, Africa has lost yet another great leader and statesman. We at Naija Times commiserate with the government and people of Ghana, and those who believe in the African cause, for this great loss. It is indeed regrettable that Rawlings died at a time when the continent needed him most.

Born on June 22, 1947, to Madam Victoria Agbotui, a native of Dzelukope in the Volta Region of Ghana and James Ramsey John, a Scottish chemist, Rawlings was a great man whose corpus requires a very large canvas. As a very ambitious young man who knew what he wanted in life, Rawlings attended the famous Achimota College, Ghana before being enrolled in the Ghanaian Armed Forces and rose to the position of Pilot Officer in 1969. Ten years later, in 1979, Rawlings was charged for attempting to overthrow the government of General Fred Akuffo. At his trial, he delivered a rousing speech which moved a large section of the public to rise to his defence. On June 4, 1979, Rawlings was freed from jail by the combined efforts of soldiers and civilians and which led to his successfully overthrowing the government of the day.

Now Head of State, Rawlings and his colleagues formed the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) which embarked on what they called “house cleaning.” The house cleaning led to the trial and execution by firing squad of some leading figures, including three former heads of state – Lt. General AkwasiAfrifa, General Ignatius Acheampong and General Fred Akuffo. Rawlings organised a general election and handed over power to the winner, Dr.HillaLimann, in September 1979. In December 1981, Flight Lieutenant Rawlings  overthrew Limann in another coup d’état and ruled as Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) until 1992 when he resigned from the military to contest the election on the platform of the newly registered National Democratic Congress. Chairman Rawlings, as he was then called, won with 58.3 per cent of the ballot and his party got 189 out of the 300 parliamentary seats available.

In 1996, Rawlings won his bid for a second term, as allowed by the Constitution. He quit partisan politics in 2001 having repositioned Ghana as one of the leading African countries in terms of human capital and infrastructural development. As at 2001 when he left office, Ghanaians had celebrated a decade of uninterrupted electricity supply all over the country. While in office, his wife, Nana KonaduAgyeman-Rawlings, remained a school teacher, although she would later run for elective office in 2016. Rawlings left behind a legacy of enduring electoral reform which has seen Ghana transit from one democratic administration to another through free and fair elections. His revolution commendably fought corruption in Ghana and this transformed him into a legend.

Although many still saw him as tainted by the bad legacy of military coups, like the late Captain Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso, Rawlings was an ideologically driven patriot whose spirited vision for a better Africa was well appreciated. Even though his vision was revolutionary, he remained a simple man. He was so simple he could be sighted on many occasions controlling traffic on the streets of Ghana. As a man of vision, people could see clearly where he was going. Rawlings would be remembered as a true revolutionary and an authentic African hero who restored the glory and pride of Ghana as a country, and at the same time, contributed to the enhancement of the image of the African continent. May his soul rest in peace.

Alhaji Balarabe Musa: 1936-2020

THE death, on Wednesday November 11, 2020 of Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, the governor of Kaduna State in the Second Republic, has dealt a devastating blow to the radical Left in Nigeria. If there was any Nigerian politician who maintained his avowed non-conformist stance till the end, it was Balarabe Musa. We join his family and whatever is left of the progressive wing of the Nigerian politics to mourn the departed symbol of principled politics and committed service to the nation.

Balarabe Musa was born on August 21, 1936 at Kaya in Kaduna State. He attended the Zaria Middle School between 1947 and 1952. From there, he proceeded to the Institute of Administration, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where he studied Accountancy between 1952 and 1953. He began his career as an accounts clerk (1953-1955). He also taught in some secondary schools between 1955 and 1960 while also enrolled in some correspondence colleges in London for advanced certificates. Thus, he worked variously as clerk, school teacher and accountant until his retirement in 1975.

When the ban on political activities was lifted after the first thirteen years of military rule, he and some politicians of like minds across the country namely Aminu Kano, Chinua Achebe, Michael Imoudu, UcheChukwumerije, Sule Lamido, Abubakar Rimi, etc, formed the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP). Their mission was to provide an alternative platform that would cater for the needs of the poor masses and downtrodden and to liberate them from exploitation in the hands of the elite. Balarabe Musa and his colleagues believed that the history of all hitherto existing societies was the history of class struggles.

Alhaji Balarabe Musa won the governorship election in the old Kaduna State which covered the present Kaduna and Katsina States and was sworn in as the first Governor of the State on October 1, 1979. His victory was however challenged by the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) which won the majority seats in the State House of Assembly and was also the ruling party at the national level. He not only refused a bi-partisan co-operation with the NPN-controlled State House of Assembly, he was also not prepared to appoint members of the NPN into his cabinet. This led to his impeachment in June 1981 after just about 20 months in the saddle as the governor. He was the first Governor to be so impeached in the history of party politics in Nigeria. In spite of his short period in government, he set the pace for the massive infrastructural development of Kaduna State.

Unlike many social critics who are known to preach what they cannot practise, Balarabe Musa was squarely at home with both. In political and power circles, it was only expected that he would, as a controversial statesman, have only a few, if any, friends. Throughout the four decades that the accountant shot into the limelight, he exemplified a life of matching words with action. Whether as governor or party leader, he deliberately made sure that he lived well above board. While in office, Balarabe Musa did not draw on state resources to cater for his family. He remained until death, the gadfly of Nigerian politics and the stringent critic of corruption in all its facets.

Musa lived a simple life, riding his old Peugeot car on the streets of Kaduna with no security escorts. In fact, his 3-bedroom house located at 25, Aliyu Turaki Road in Kaduna, acquired in 1970, was home to all manner of visitors. He was a protégé of the late radical politician, AminuKano, having joined the latter’s Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) in 1953. Balarabe Musa adopted NEPU’s socialist leanings and when he became governor, he implemented pro-poor policies, fought and lived with the talakawas (poor) until his last breath. When the military annulled the June 12,1993 presidential election, the widely acclaimed free and fair election, Balarabe Musa was among the notable Northerners who called for the de-annulment of that election. He also joined the pro-June 12 movement that fought the late Gen. Abacha dictatorship.

With the return to democratic rule in 1999, Balarabe Musa revived the defunct PRP, became its chairman and national leader and galvanised other opposition leaders to form the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP). He contested for the presidency on the platform of the PRP in 2003 but was later to say that he had no money to even print posters. Despite his progressive bent, people saw him as being too politically rigid and lacking in tactical flexibility. He quit active politics due to declining health and resigned from his position as chairman of the PRP on August 31, 2018. He died without witnessing the fulfilment of his desire for the emancipation of the poor masses of Nigeria. May his soul rest in peace.

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