Rawlings’ death: Akufo-Addo directs all flags to fly at half-mast

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has directed that all national flags fly at half-mast for the next seven days in all parts of the country, following the demise of former President Jerry John Rawlings. 

Mr Akufo-Addo has also declared seven days of national mourning from Friday, 13 November to Friday, 20 November in honour of the memory of Mr Rawlings.

The “government will work closely with the family of President Rawlings on the arrangement for a fitting state funeral for the late president and will keep the nation informed accordingly”, Nana Akufo-Addo said in a statement.

Mr Rawlings passed away Thursday morning at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.

He was 73 years old.

He was a formermilitary leader, who subsequently became a civilian politician and led the country from 1981 to 2001 and also for a brief period in 1979.

He led a military juntauntil 1992, and then served two terms as the democratically-elected President of Ghana.

Rawlings initially came to poweras a flight lieutenant of the Ghana Air Force following acoup d’etat in 1979.

Prior to that, he led an unsuccessful coup attempt against the ruling military government on 15 May 1979, just five weeks before scheduled democratic elections were due to take place.

After initially handing over power to a civilian government, he took back control of the country on 31 December 1981, as the Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).

In 1992, Mr Rawlings resigned from the military, founded theNational Democratic Congress (NDC), and became the first President of the Fourth Republic.

He was re-elected in 1996 for four more years.

After two terms in office, Mr Rawlings stepped aside and endorsed his vice-president, the late John Atta Evans Atta Mills, as a presidential candidate in 2000.