Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has joined the country’s leaders to mourn the passing of his predecessor Jerry John Rawlings.
Mr Rawlings, a retired Flight Lieutenant in the Ghana Armed Forces, died on Thursday, November 12 at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra after a short illness.
He had served Ghana as the first president of the Fourth Republic and apparently became the first of four ‘Johns’ to successively rule the country – John Agyekum Kufuor, John Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama.
He handed over power to Mr Kufuor in what was touted across the world as symbolic for African democracy considering it being the first time a democratically elected government has handed over to another democratically elected government.
In a terse tweet a few hours after news of the death of his predecessor reached him, Mr Kufuor wrote: “REST IN PEACE JERRY JOHN RAWLINGS”.
A seven-day national mourning has been declared with flags across the country directed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to fly at half-mast.
Arrangements are also underway to give him a befitting state burial.