Ghana’s Former President Jerry Rawlings Dies Of COVID-19

JERRY ‘Junior Jesus’ Rawlings died Thursday morning at the Korle-Bu University Hospital in Accra, where he had been admitted a week earlier after COVID-19 complications.

President Nana Akufo-Addo and former president John Mahama have announced the temporary suspension of their election campaigns, ahead of 7 December polls.

Rawlings led Ghana from 1981 to 2001. A former lieutenant in the Ghanaian Air Force, he participated in his first military coup in May 1979. His attempt failed, and he was arrested but later released a few weeks by a group of fellow officers, launching his political career.

Born in Accra to an Ewe mother and a Scottish father, Jerry Rawlings was noticed very early on for his outspokenness and his itch for revolution. A gifted and brilliant