On Thursday, Ghana’s former President Jerry John Rawlings died at the age of 73, authorities said.
”It is with great sadness that I announce to the nation that the 1st President of the 4th Republic, His Excellency Jerry John Rawlings, has joined his ancestors,” Ghana?s President Nana Akufo-Addo said in a statement.
”I convey the deep sympathies of Government and the people of Ghana to his wife, the former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, the children, and family of the late President, in these difficult times,” he added.
Rawlings died around 10.10 a.m. [1000 GMT], at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, where the former president was receiving treatment after a short illness, according to Akufo-Addo.
Akufo-Addo said all national flags should fly at half-mast for the next seven days and announced seven days of national mourning from Nov. 13 until Nov. 20.
Rawling spent nearly a week at a hospital in the capital, Accra.
The former president fell sick after the burial of his mother roughly three weeks ago.
He led a military junta from 1981 to 1992 after coming to power through a coup.
In 1992, Rawlings resigned from the military and established the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
He was democratically elected that year and then in 1996 for a second term.
He greatly contributed in Ghana’s political stability and competent economic management.
Know more about him
Jerry John Rawlings was born in Accra on 22nd June 1947, to a Ghanaian mother from Dzelukope, near Keta, in the Volta Region, and a Scottish father.
He was educated at Achimota School where he obtained his General Certificate of Education ‘O’ Level in 1966.
While in 1969 he entered the Ghana Air Force,
A decade later, as a senior officer in the air force, he overthrew a military government, handing over power to a civilian leader.