Prof Ahwoi recounts interviewing JJ in OB van at Burma Camp after June 4 coup

Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi has recounted how in 1979 he became the first person to interview then Chairman Jerry John Rawlings after the June 4 coup.

When Rawlings took over the reins of political leadership, he specifically requested that Ahwoi, then a young lawyer, interviews him for his first media appearance as a coup leader.

Ahwoi, who later held positions under Rawlings said he was calm when the offer came stating that he had been chosen because he had interviewed presidential aspirants for the vote that preceded the coup.

“I wasn’t nervous, I was proud, I felt I had hit a bull’s eye. I didn’t hesitate (even though) the interview environment was very stressful,” he told Nana Aba Anamoah in an exclusive interview on GHOne TV earlier this week.

He elaborated why he described the environment as stressful and gave an assessment of Rawling’s output.

“We did it in an OB van at Burma Camp with about 100 soldiers corking their guns surrounding us. And I had gone to the interview with my current wife, at that time she was Comfort Engman, now she is Mrs. Comfort Ahwoi and you could see that she was shaking.”

He continued: “So, it was also an adventure but I think that once the interview started, I think I had made the right decisions because Rawlings managed to get his thoughts not just to Ghana but to the world, because this was his first interview ever after June 4.”

Prof. Ahwoi stressed that he realized Rawlings meant well with the issues he raised in the interview adding that he was also proud of the role he played in the aftermath of the coup.

It became the first of two takeovers that Rawlings staged. After handing over to an elected government, Rawlings staged a comeback on December 31, 1981 toppling the Hilla Limann government he handed over to.

Rawlings led the Provisional National Defense Council government from 1981 till 1992 with the coming into force of the Fourth Republic. He won two terms as a democratically elected president under the banner of the National Democratic Congress, NDC, exiting office in 2000.