Read the full statement by JJ Rawlings when he faced court martial in 1979
On May 15, 1979, Jerry John Rawlings was arrested among other junior officers for an attempted coup to oust the then Acheampong regime.
Rawlings alongside Col. Ofosu-Appiah, Col. Coker Appiah, Group Capt. Clottey, Wing Commander, Ametepe, Squadron Leader, Jones Mensah, Squadron Leader, Azaria, Lt Col. Twum Ampofo, and Captain Owoo were arrested and forced to face a court-martial on charges of treason.
Kojo Yankah, in his book titled “The Trial of JJ Rawlings” detailed the speech written by Rawlings which he meant to read to the judging panel.
According to the book, Rawlings was not made to read the full statement by the state prosecutor.
Read the full statement below
“Fellow Citizens of Ghana,
“Now! You listen to me well and good because I am not here to make a speech and I am not here to waste my time talking.
First and foremost let me inform you that I am not here to impose myself on 10 million citizens of this country. But I am telling you that I am here today in the history of this country to address myself to military senior officers, all those politicians, all those businessmen and foreign criminals who have used our blood, sweat and tears-the toils of our laboring-to enrich themselves, to drown in wine and women, while you and I, while the majority of us, are daily struggling for survival, yes!
“I know what if feels like going to bed with a headache for want of food in the stomach.
“Let me give you, the struggling and suffering masses, just one little warning. Should anyone or group of you dare collaborate or help exploiting pigs to run away, this country will once more bleed than we anticipate.
“I am not an expert in Economics and I am not an expert in Law but I am an expert in working on an empty stomach while wondering when and where the next meal will come from.
“Iam going to prove to you today that it is no longer a question of the military against the civilians, it is no longer a question of the Akan against the Ewe, the Ga against the Northerner.
But a question of THOSE WHO HAVE against those who HAVE NOT- A question of the vast majority of hungry people against a very tiny minority of greedy, inhuman, selfish senior officers, politicians, businessmen and their bank managers and a bunch of cowardly Lebanese who will not stay in their country to fight for a cause. But who is a fool? You and I.
“You and I are the bigger fools for allowing such a blatant abuse of human dignity for so long. 22 years after independence, you and I are still hitting our heads on the ground and leaving it all to God to save us one day. Where on this earth had God come to the salvation of a people without the suffering, starving, hungry people taking the law into their own hands!
“America has seen her brand of a revolution, France has seen her brand of a revolution. Britain has seen her brand of revolution. Russia, China, Iran, all of them. Only the black man in the black African Continent goes on leading his fellow blackmen like a herd of cattle while suppressing them like slaves.
Let me tell you today that God will not help you, and the big man will not help you because his stomach is full, his children’s stomachs are full and there is enough for them to go and come as they like.
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