<<Print>>

Major Kojo Boakye Djan (rtd), the man who prides himself on making former President Jerry John Rawlings what he is today, has sought to dispel the notion that he has never been a member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), a party widely acclaimed to have been founded by his former friend. Boakye Djan, who was speaking to Daily Guide, rather said he was the only founding father of the NDC. In a gruelling encounter with Daily Guide reporters yesterday, he claimed that the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) regime in 1979 was the basis of his claim since he was the architect of the military putsch which catapulted Jerry Rawlings to political stardom. Boakye came to the offices of Daily Guide to present a press statement on the contest for the Jaman South parliamentary primary of the NDC which he might end up going unopposed because his only challenger could not make it to the vetting. He was subjected to rigorous questioning on his sudden decision to join the NDC in view of his strained relations with the party�s founder and his onetime best friend, Rawlings, as well as the suspicion that he might be a plant. He noted: �Nobody in the NDC can say I am a mole because I created it; because I did June 4th. I made more sacrifices than anybody. By choosing PNDC to become National Democratic Congress in this country, I lost a brother; the last person to be executed for that was Kyeremeh Djan before the handing over.� For him, �that was a stunning sacrifice, a supreme sacrifice he made so that you and me can be free in a democratic country not a military defence council like it was�. On the question of when he became a member of the NDC, he declined to give a specific answer except to say, �I have re-entered; I didn�t need to be a member but because of the nonsense going on, I have re-entered,� indicating that �I have forwarded that requirement to those who have to vet on it.� Pressed further, the former military leader and spokesperson for the Jerry Rawlings Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) asked rhetorically, �I am the founding founder, cant you understand that?� saying, �You don�t enter your house and say I have joined my house�. �You don�t think that I�m crazy here, that I get the form which says that to be able to present this form for vetting you must be a member for two years. So if I have not done that for two years, Kofi Adams must be the first person as Deputy General Secretary to know. So if he is not doing that and is playing to the gallery, then he is powerless in NDC to stop my application or is being mischievous or both,� he said. Boakye Djan, who is credited for planning the coup that brought Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings to power on 4 June 1979, along with other junior officers, insisted he had met the basic requirements for him to become the party�s parliamentary candidate. �As a matter of fact, my opponent never turned up for the vetting; he is holed in America�, he said, claiming that his opponent was interviewed on telephone from his base in the United States. �From my information, he never even picked the form to sign himself�, he said, adding jokingly, �If I had done that it would be on your front page.� On the question of why he decided to join the NDC, a party whose ideals he opposed since he had always been critical of the Jerry Rawlings led Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), Boakye Djan had this to say: �For PNDC, that�s Defence Council and the last two letters of the NDC is Democratic Congress; there is a hell of a difference between defence council and democratic congress.� This, he said, was because one was a military operation whilst the other was a civilian democratic government. It was the PNDC that eventually metamorphosed into today�s NDC. That notwithstanding, the former Spokesman for the AFRC insisted, �I�ve been defending June 4th more than he does so what makes you believe that I don�t believe in those ideals. In fact, I crafted probity and accountability in government�. Much as he defends the June 4th Revolution, Boakye Djan said he frowns on the celebration of the event since it invokes nostalgic memories, indicating that �anytime you celebrate an act of war, you bring up memories that hurt�. He proposed a solemn commemoration of the event in order not to invoke those nostalgic memories.