“Not too long after I left office, I was giving a talk in Tanzanian and I said the world was going to see an exponential growth of terrorism. I had left office and the western media and western governments were desperately whitewashing the image of Ghana in spite of the atrocities and the corruption that was going on in my country after we had left office.
Ghana had become a captive state, being whitewashed. You see how they orchestrate things? This is what I want you to wake up to. Now, it might interest you to know that, while they were whitewashing, making these claims and things were also falling apart, as late as just a few months ago, BBC now claims that terrorism had risen by 84%, creating a false impression at that time. This is the power of the Western media”
But Kufuor in a sharp rebuttal dismissed his claims, saying “President Rawlings is not the only living Ghanaian during the administration of President Kufuor, and therefore he cannot rewrite history for Ghanaians.” Kufuor asserted that “whatever commendations his government received were worldwide and well deserved and were based on the results-oriented approach that was brought to bear on governance during his eight years at the helm of affairs of Ghana.”
Mugabe didn’t snub me
Kufuor also rejected claims that he and Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obansanjo were snubbed by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, when two western leaders allegedly sent them to ask him to step down. Former President Rawlings alleged that Kufuor and Obasanjo were asked to “get out” when they were instructed to get Mugabe out of office.
“I do recall that when Bush and Blair made their presence felt, like ‘this is going to be a new world order under our leadership’, I think they attempted to crack a whip on Africa because ‘things are not going well on this black continent either.’ President Mugabe was to be their first victim, if you remember. His name was the one poisoned the most. Two people were sent down there to go and ask him to get out of office: Obasanjo and Kufuor, who were then in office. The Southern Region leadership told them to get out. Fantastic, beautiful!”
But Kufuor in a statement described Rawlings’ comments on the past development as “untrue and unfounded”. “It beats one’s understanding that such an untrue narrative could be concocted,”Kufuor added. He further recalled that at the Commonwealth Heads of State meeting in Nigeria in 2003, the Heads of State were concerned about the heightened political tension in Zimbabwe following the government’s decree to seize white lands for blacks, and requested some of the leaders gathered to intervene to help calm tempers.
According to him, former Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Obasanjo of Nigeria were the ones who volunteered to go on the mission after the meeting . “I was never part of such an endeavor, and it is disappointing that Former President Rawlings, who must know the facts, will add my name to it after all these years,” Kufuor stressed.