Former President of Ghana, Jerry John Rawlings has died at 73 on Thursday morning, November 12.
The ex-president reportedly died at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, capital of Ghana, from coronavirus, BBC reports.
He recently buried his mother, Victoria Agbotui, at Dzelukope in the Volta Region on October 24. She died at 101 on September 24.
Shortly after the burial, Rawlings fell seriously ill and was hospitalised after showing symptoms of COVID-19.
Rawlings was a military ruler, who later joined politics and ruled Ghana from 1981 to 2001. He led a military junta until 1992, and then served two terms as the democratically elected president of Ghana.
Rawlings initially came to power in Ghana as a flight lieutenant of the Ghana Air Force following a coup d’état on May 15, 1979, five weeks before scheduled elections to return the country to civilian rule.
When the coup failed, he was publicly court-martialed and sentenced to death. While awaiting execution, Rawlings was taken away from custody on June 4, 1979 by a group of soldiers.
After initially handing power over to a civilian government, he took back control of the country on December 31, 1981 as the chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).
He then resigned from the military, founded the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and became the first president of the Fourth Republic.
Rawlings was re-elected in 1996 for four more years. After two terms in office, the limit according to the Ghanaian constitution, he endorsed his vice-president John Atta Mills as presidential candidate in 2000.
May his soul rest in peace.
: From the Igbo speaking Eastern region of Nigeria, this is Nnamdi Chukwuemeka Leonard Ayozie, saying ; “fare thee well J.J.R.