The Government has taken a decision to rename the University for Development Studies (UDS) after the late Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings in honour of his selfless and dedicated service to the nation, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said.
According to the President, the university would be called the Jerry John Rawlings University of Development Studies after all the necessary renaming formalities had been carried out.
President Akufo-Addo announced this when he delivered a tribute on behalf of the government and the people of Ghana at the funeral of the late J.J Rawlings at the Independence Square in Accra yesterday.
The University for Development Studies was established under the leadership of former President J.J Rawlings in 1992
President Akufo-Addo said although former President Rawlings was against the decision for the university to be renamed after him when he was alive, it was imperative for the state to honour his memory, in spite of his reservation.
“I am glad that this has found favour with his family,” he said and added that the university would be renamed after the necessary formalities had been carried out.
President Akufo-Addo recounted the turbulence and events the led to the emergence of the late J.J Rawlings in the country’s political scenes in the 70s, his re-emergence in 1981 when he overthrow the 3rd Republic government, his life as civilian president and as former President.
He said the public life of the former President won him passionate admirers, vociferous critics, and determined lifelong enemies, all at the same time.
“He was the longest serving ruler in our history –11 years as a military leader, and eight years as a twice elected civilian President, making 19 years in all”.
“He was fortified in his work by his union with his celebrated consort, the equally dynamic Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, who proved to be a sturdy pillar and invaluable companion to the very end, and who bore him four children, the eldest of whom, Zanetor, is continuing his tradition of public service,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo also recounted his personal experience with the former President, indicating that the relationship that existed between him and the late J.J Rawlings, until recently, was open animosity.
“It was no secret that the relationship that existed between the two of us, right from the heady days of 1979, through to my brief period in exile, his assumption of office as the 1st President of the 4th Republic, the historic Kume Preko demonstrations, my period as Attorney General and Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Kufuor administration, to my being elected 2008 NPP presidential candidate, was one of open animosity. We did not see eye to eye!!”
“However, with time, things changed. We came to see value in each other, and understood, to a very large degree, our respective perspectives. One thing we had in common was our mutual commitment to public service”.
“My visit to his Ridge residence in 2012 signified the easing of tensions between us, leading to a friendship that lasted for the better part of some eight years. Indeed, when the Ghanaian people, in 2016, reposed, for the first time, their confidence in me in the elections of that year, one of the first persons on whom I paid a courtesy call was His Excellency Jerry John Rawlings,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo described the late J.J Rawlings as a good friend who, with his wealth of experience and knowledge, offered him good advice in his time of difficulty.
“There was a symbolic gesture he advanced to me at the funeral of his late mother, Madam Victoria Agbotui, held at the Forecourt of the State House on October 24, 2020. It was to be our last time together”.
“He was called up by the clergy to receive special prayers as the only surviving son. He told the men of God to wait and called for me to walk up to join him to receive the special prayers. He whispered to my ears as I stood beside him: ‘I reminded them that they should pray for you also because you had also lost your mother.’ I was touched by this,” he said.
Former President J.J Rawlings’ ideals of probity and accountability, according to President Akufo-Addo, had been enshrined in the Constitution of the 4th Republic, constitutes the foundational principles on which social order was being developed in Ghana.
For all his revolutionary antecedents, he said the late President set, in 2001, the enviable precedent of transferring power to another democratically-elected leader and indicated that Mr Rawlings’ act had guided the country of respecting the two term limit of the Presidency and the orderly transfer of power.
He said Flt. Lt. J.J Rawlings’ actions were not limited to Ghana only and described him as an African nationalist who held unwavering positions on all matters concerning the wider continent of Africa, especially when they involved foreign interference and control of Africa’s destiny.
“I believe that history, on balance, will be kind to him, and will render a positive verdict on his contribution to the evolution of our nation, and the entrenchment of its democratic institutions and culture. It is entirely appropriate and fitting that he should receive a State Funeral with full honours to express the gratitude of the nation for that contribution,” he said.
By Yaw Kyei, Johnathan Donkor and Claude Nyarko-Adams
