FORMER President of Ghana, Jerry John Rawlings, is dead.
Rawlings, who ruled Ghana from 1981 to 2001, reportedly died at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, capital of Ghana, on Thursday morning,
Details of the cause of his death are still sketchy, but he was said to have died from complications related to an undisclosed ailment.
The late ex-President was born in Accra on June 22, 1947, to a Ghanaian mother from Dzelukope, near Keta, in the Volta Region, and a Scottish father.
He was educated at Achimota School where he obtained his General Certificate of Education ‘O’ Level in 1966.
He enlisted as a Flight Cadet in the Ghana Air Force in August 1967, and was subsequently selected for officer cadet training at the Ghana Military Academy and Training School, Teshie, in Accra.
As a former Ghanaian military leader and subsequent politician, Mr Rawlings led a military junta from 1981 until 1992, and then served two terms as the democratically elected President of Ghana from January 7, 1993 to January 6, 2001.
Mr Rawlings initially came to power as a flight lieutenant of the Ghana Air Force following a coup d’état in 1979.
Prior to that, he led an unsuccessful coup attempt against the ruling military government on May 15, 1979, just five weeks before scheduled democratic elections were due to take place.
After initially handing power over to a civilian government, he took back control of the country on December 31, 1981 as the Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).
In 1992, Mr Rawlings resigned from the military, founded the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and became the first President of the 4th Republic.
He was re-elected in 1996 for four more years.
After two terms in office, the limit according to the Ghanaian Constitution, Rawlings endorsed his vice-president John Atta Mills as presidential candidate in 2000.
Details later…
-ThePoint
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