The piece which was authored by a close associate of the Former President, Professor Kwamena Awhoi sought to tell into details, his experience while working with Mr. Rawlings.
Though it touched on both the positives and negatives, quite a number of revelations in the story pointed to a deteriorated relationship between them and how in some instances, the former President acted as a megalomaniac and how he ‘betrayed’ late President John Evans Atta Mills.
The former local government minister under Rawlings’ book stirred up a lot of controversies and talks and subsequently necessitated a response from the late former President.
Speaking about how the publication of the book and its contents was received by Mr. Rawlings, Dr. Donald Senanu Agumenu told GhanaWeb that it was a difficult time for his boss.
It could easily qualify as one of the ‘disappointing moments’ for the late statesman he said, considering some aspect of the book was inaccurate and ‘damaging’.
“President Rawlings didn’t take that book as an easy thing, it was one of the biggest disappointing moments for him because his position is, some of the things could be factual but most of the things said in that book, at least, why not ask or to bring coherent sequence of our political trajectory so that we don’t distort history. It wasn’t something he took lightly; it was quite a difficult moment for him,” he said in the interview with GhanaWeb.
“He knows how he manages his difficult moments. He is not somebody that can easily cry before you, at times throughout the week, he can be very serious and then if he wants to engage you, he will have very deep engagements.
“He dealt with some specific issues, he didn’t come public to touch on many things, the reason being that, at that moment, a lot was going on. People were tackling the book from this angle and there were a lot of interpretations so he wanted to take his time,’ Dr. Agumenu added.
Dr. Agumenu also detailed how amidst the controversy, other elements, including persons from within the rank and file of the National Democratic Congress tried to salvage the situation.
“There were interventions in terms of means to mitigate the fall out that the party even wanted to issue a statement. At a point, the party was in consultation with the founder, Former President Rawlings, and even the author and also the flagbearer. So there were so many things going on at that moment and a lot of responses and rebuttals were coming in. It was a moment to say, okay which of the issues would you want to tackle?
Meanwhile, Dr. Agumenu is of the conviction that the author, Prof. Awhoi, may have, upon some reflection and considering events that followed, felt some level of remorse for projecting certain aspects of the book.
“To be very sincere with you, I believe, before I come to this, the author of the book, maybe after everything may have thought, could I have done this book in a better way?
“I believe the author of the book may have regretted one or two things which maybe (I’m using maybe because I am not in his mind), he would have thought that if I had understood that President Rawlings would take this thing in this way or this would have been the connotation, I could have done it this way or that.
“……I have not been part of the phase that Prof. Awhoi was talking about but there are living testimonies, people who were living at the time and they are around, some of them brought diverse views and some outrightly objected and said, no, this is scandalous. President Rawlings himself said A, B, C, D is not correct,” he concluded.
