Ghana’s military and later civilian ruler Jerry John Rawlings has died at the age of 73, the state-owned Daily Graphic reported on Thursday.
According to the state owned newspaper, Rawlings died at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra on Thursday, a week after he was admitted there.
His death comes a month after his mother died.
Born to a Ghanaian mother and a Scottish father in Accra on 22nd June 1947, Rawlings ruled Ghana briefly as a military leader shortly after a coup in 1979.
He handed over to the late civilian president Hilla Liman months later.
The trained fighter pilot however returned to rule Ghana as a military leader and later as civilian president following the advent of democracy in Ghana in 1992.
He handed over power peacefully to the Kuffour administration in 2001 and has lived in retirement ever since.
He had been a conscientious voice, criticising successive administrations in Ghana
WN/as/APA