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Former President, Jerry John Rawlings is bemoaning what he says is his lack of major influence in the affairs of the John Mahama administration.

A strong Jerry Rawlings influence on policy would have seen things done differently and 'things would have been different in Ghana’, he suggests.

President Rawlings said this while responding to an introduction by Accra Mayor, Okoe Vanderpuiye that as a person who had ruled the country for more than twenty years, he had a major say in decision making in Ghana.

But this introduction, Mr. Rawlings told the gathering of Mayors in Accra was not a true reflection of things since he had not got much of an influence in getting things done in Ghana.

“The Lord Mayor said twenty years and the…my influence in decision making in the country, Mr. Lord Mayor that is not true…,” he said.

"...if I had a role in what was going on…things would be different…” he added.

President Rawlings who described his involvement in the Mayor’s Summit as a ‘zig zag’ one, explained that his influence would have seen things done in a more straight forward manner.
The former President, in brief remarks at the end of the three day conference, also condemned the ‘disrespectful’ attitude of the Foreign Minister.

Mr Rawlings said he was unimpressed with Ms Tetteh's decision to walk out of a three-day conference of African Mayors on Wednesday morning, after she was told that the Vice-President, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, would be replacing her as the person to deliver a speech on behalf of President John Mahama.

Ms Tetteh has since explained that she had to leave for a cabinet meeting, from which she was called at the last minute to stand in for the President, only for the Vice President to be called from the same cabinet meeting to represent the President.