Saturday,
August 9, 2014
Folks, former President JJ
Rawlings said something about two days ago that seems to be raising a pertinent
question as to whether he owns a private plane; and if he does, how he acquired
it, when, and why Ghanaians haven't discovered so till now that he would be baring
it all himself (whether inadvertently or caught up in a web and compelled by
forces beyond his control to say so)!!
Here is the lead that Rawlings
seemed to have given to give rise to such a question (in the news report
attr9ibuted to Ernest Dela Aglanu and published by Myjoyonline.com under the
heading "Stevie Wonder flew and landed my plane safely" at:
http://www.myjoyonline.com/entertainment/2014/august-8th/stevie-wonder-flew-and-landed-my-plane-safely-rawlings-reveals.php):
"Former president Jerry John
Rawlings has revealed that Grammy award winning musician, Stevie Wonder, who is
visually impaired has successfully flown a plane.
According to President Rawlings,
who is also reputed for his prowess in flying military jets, he handed over the
controls of the plane to Stevie Wonder, who was then on a trip to Ghana, and
Wonder miraculously flew the plane and landed safely...
... “Sometimes I would fly with
people in the right seat, I would take off and I would give the controls to
them and say ‘you fly’. I do that with a lot of people and they have
difficulties flying straight and level through the air etc but on this day,
when I took from the Akosombo bush, I handed over to him this blind man, who
couldn’t see, flew that aircraft so well.”...
... “People on board the plane
were clapping [and] it was a small 13-seater. I think my wife was on board
then. There was a French television crew on board, they filmed it...."
MY COMMENTS
This news report definitely
raises eyebrows, even though it has a lot of loopholes:
• At
what point in time did this event take place? When Rawlings was in power (I
remember that Stevie Wonder had been a guest of the Rawlingses at that time),
meaning that he might definitely have had access to such that aircraft
(provided that it was a state property)?
• Rawlings
said, in part, “when I took off from the Akosombo bush…”, which raises the
question as to the part on “Akosombo bush”. Taking off from the “bush”? Why,
especially given the fact that Akosombo doesn’t have an aerodrome or “tarmac”
for aircraft? (A friend has this to say: "The Bush in Akosombo refers to
Akuse near Akosombo which houses a private aerodrome now for small planes......
Rawlings used to love going to the VRA clubhouse in Akuse back in the
day." My question is: Does Rawlings not know that Akuse aerodrome to
mention instead of saying "Akosombo bush"?).
• Why
would Rawlings talk about that issue at this time when it has nothing for
Ghanaians to relate to? Who cares whether a blind man can fly or land a plane
safely? (Of course, Rawlings is unpredictable when it comes to making
utterances; but this one opens up many other issues for further probing).
• Where
is that aircraft today?
I know that Rawlings has a stiff
obsession for aircraft, but I find it difficult to understand what has come
from him on this score. Many people are wondering about it too. Those opposed
to him have seized his own utterance to confirm that he owns such an aircraft,
which reinforces their allegation that he is corrupt and that he abused his
office to mass wealth while taking draconian actions against those who did
worse than him. Is Rawlings gradually opening the can of worms about himself
and his wife? What else will he say next to cast doubts on himself, family, and
others? I think that Rawlings needs to clarify issues. Tongues are wagging!!
I shall return...
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