Rawlings will not receive the new state award

Mr. Kofi Adams, an aide to the former President J. J. Rawlings says he will not receive the award the Kufuor administration has nominated him for.

A Ghanaian Times newspaper report of Monday June 23, 2008, quoted Mr. Stephen Asamoah Boateng, Minister of Information and National Orientation as saying that President Kufuor has created a new category of the awards which is the highest award of the land and it is known as the Grand Order of the Star and Eagles of Ghana.

He said the former President and the sitting President have both been nominated to receive the award at the forth coming awards ceremony on July 3, 2008 in Accra.

Speaking to Joy FM’s Morning Show host, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, Mr. Adams said the office of former President Rawlings is not aware of the nomination, because the office has not been notified.

He said emphatically that the office has not been informed, arguing that he will know if it is so.

He accused the NPP government of hypocrisy, citing the government’s intervention and scuttling of an earlier award which was to be given to former President Rawlings by the University of Development Studies in the Northern part of Ghana. He wondered why the government would stop the university from giving Rawlings the award and then turn around to award him one.

Mr. Adams said Rawlings will not be associated with the awards because he feels that the Executive, headed by President Kufour has not done justice to many issues in the country.

He referred to the murder of the Dagbon King, Yaa Naa Yakubu Andani, the death in military custody of Alhaji Molbila in Tamale and the recent imprisonment of former Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata. He also cited the jailing of Mr. Dan Abodakpi as a case in point. He said former president Rawlings feels that in all these instances, justice has not been done and therefore he will not accept the award.

According to Mr. Adams, all these are happening in spite of the fact that there was supposed to be national reconciliation.

"Former President Rawlings believes that the State must give justice to the Yaa Naa, Alhaji Molbila, Tsatsu Tsikata and Dan Abodakpi." He said.

My JoyOnline, June 22