Jerry Rawlings

Jerry John Rawlings (22 June 1947 – 12 November 2020)^[1] was a Ghanaian military officer, aviator, and politician who led the country briefly in 1979 and then from 1981 to 2001. He led a repressive military junta until 1993 and then served two terms as the democratically elected president of Ghana.^[2][3][4] He was the longest-serving leader in Ghana's history, presiding over the country for 19 years.^[5][6]

Rawlings came to power in Ghana as a flight lieutenant of the Ghana Air Force following a coup d'état in 1979. Before that, he led an unsuccessful coup attempt against the ruling military government on Tuesday, 15 May 1979, just five weeks before scheduled democratic elections were due. After handing power over to a civilian government, he overthrew the democratically elected Government through a military coup on Thursday, 31 December 1981, as the chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).^[7]

In 1992, Rawlings resigned from the military, founded the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and successfully ran for president in that year's election, becoming the first president of the Fourth Republic. Rawlings brokered a ceasefire in 1995 during the First Liberian Civil War. He was re-elected in 1996 to serve four more years.^[8][9] After two terms in office, the limit according to the Ghanaian Constitution, Rawlings endorsed his vice-president John Atta Mills as a presidential candidate in 2000. Rawlings served as the African Union envoy to Somalia.^[10] He died in 2020 at age 73 and was accorded a state funeral.^[11][12]

Rawlings is seen as a transformative leader in the history of Ghana, and is credited with leading the country through economic recovery and returning national pride to the country, along with turning Ghana into a multi-party democracy.^[13] Rawlings has been described as one of Ghana's greatest leaders, and as the "transcendent African political figure of his generation".^[14]