Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council
In office 31 December 1981 – 7 January 1993
Preceded by
Hilla Limann (as President)
Succeeded by
Himself (as President)
Chairman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council
In office 4 June 1979 – 24 September 1979
Vice President
Gamesu Pascal [Zikpitor] Sedzro
Preceded by
Fred Akuffo
Succeeded by
Hilla Limann (as President)
Personal details
Born
Jerry Rawlings John
(1947-06-22)22 June 1947 Accra, Gold Coast (now Ghana)
Died
12 November 2020(2020-11-12) (aged 73) Accra, Ghana
Resting place
Burma Camp
Political party
National Democratic Congress (after 1992)
Spouse
Nana Konadu Agyeman
(m. 1977)
Children
4, including Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings
Profession
Fighter pilot
Awards
UDS Honorary Award
Military service
Branch/service
Ghana Air Force
Years of service
1968–1992
Rank
Flight lieutenant
Jerry John Rawlings (22 June 1947 – 12 November 2020)[1] was a Ghanaian military officer, aviator and politician who led the country for a brief period in 1979, and then from 1981 to 2001. He led a military junta until 1992, and then served two terms as the democratically elected president of Ghana.[2][3][4]
Rawlings came to power in Ghana as a flight lieutenant of the Ghana Air Force following a coup d'état in 1979. Prior to 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 to take place. After handing power over to a civilian government, he took back control of the country on Thursday, 31 December 1981 as the chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).
In 1992, Rawlings resigned from the military, founded the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and became the first president of the Fourth Republic. He was re-elected in 1996 for four more years.[5][6] 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.[7] He died in 2020 at age 73 and was accorded a state funeral.[8][9]
^"Jerry J. Rawlings – Biography & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. 12 November 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
^"Ghana : History". thecommonwealth. Archived from the original on 7 May 2019. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
^"Rawlings hails frontline health workers". MyJoyOnline. 4 June 2020. Archived from the original on 5 June 2020. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
^"Jerry J. Rawlings | head of state, Ghana". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
^"Flt.-Lt. (Rtd) Jerry John Rawlings Profile". Archived from the original on 14 February 2013. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
^"Jerry John Rawlings Profile – MyGHPage". Retrieved 5 December 2020.
^"AU Chairperson receives High Representative for Somalia, Jerry John Rawlings". MyJoyOnline. 31 January 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
^"Ghana buries former president Jerry Rawlings with honors". The Independent. 27 January 2021. Archived from the original on 8 June 2022. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
^Accra, Staff and agencies in (12 November 2020). "Ghana's former leader Jerry Rawlings dies at 73". the Guardian. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
Jerry John Rawlings (22 June 1947 – 12 November 2020) was a Ghanaian military officer, aviator and politician who led the country for a brief period in...
Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings (born 17 November 1948) is a Ghanaian politician and the widow of former President JerryRawlings, under whose capacity she...
serving as a Deputy of Tourism under President JerryRawlings. In 2000, he had an argument with Rawlings over failing to choose Obed Asamoah as a running...
palace coup which overthrew General Acheampong, then Flight Lieutenant JerryRawlings led a coup d'état which overthrown the Supreme Military Council. Other...
Ministry of Foreign Affairs in June 1975. Following the 1979 coup led by JerryRawlings, Limann was elected President on the People's National Party ticket...
2007 to 2008 and his victory over John Evans Atta Mills at the end of JerryRawlings' second term marked the first transition of power in Ghana from a democratic...
elections of any sort since the country gained independence in 1957. JerryRawlings, who had led the country since taking power in a 1981 coup, had grudgingly...
separated. The first president for whom the term limits applied was JerryRawlings in 2001. If the president dies, resigns, is permanently incapacitated...
Ghana on 7 December 1996. In the presidential elections, incumbent JerryRawlings of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was re-elected in a single...
next presidential election was 13 years later, on 3 November 1992. JerryRawlings, who had come to power in another military coup on 31 December 1981...
in 1993. He continued as Information Minister in the Rawlings government after President Rawlings became the democratically elected president in the 1992...
Ghana's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1997 to 2001, under President JerryRawlings, and he was the Member of Parliament for the Anlo constituency from...
It was the site of fighting during the June 1979 coup that placed JerryRawlings in power. The museum was opened on 5 March 1957. Burma Camp has twenty-four...
Rhine Rosamond Asiamah Nkansah (born 1930), first Ghanaian policewoman JerryRawlings, former president of the Republic of Ghana and Ghana Air Force fighter...
was previously the Vice-President from 1997 to 2001 under President JerryRawlings, and he contested unsuccessfully in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections...
Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings (J.J Rawlings)". Africa Confidential. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 1 June 2013. "Rawlings: The legacy"...
lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings installed the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), of which he became chairman. In 1992, Rawlings retired from...
National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, during the reign of JerryRawlings. He also briefly served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1997, and...
rule by Rawlings. He retired from the Ghana Armed Forces and served a further two democratically elected terms ending January 7, 2001. For Rawlings' first...
the People's National Party's elected government was overthrown by JerryRawlings, the former head of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, in a coup...
particularly strong links were built between Farrakhan and Ghanaian President JerryRawlings. Under Farrakhan, the NOI adopted more elements of mainstream Islamic...
President: Hilla Limann (1979–1981) President: JerryRawlings (1981–2000) 31 December 1981 - in another JerryRawlings -led coup the Hilla Limann government is...
in prison that JerryRawlings, who was then Chairman of the AFRC and Kojo Tsikata were involved in the killing of the judges. Rawlings tried to clear...
military's actions, Doumbouya quoted the former Ghanaian president JerryRawlings, who said that "if the people are crushed by their elites, it is up...
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