Rawlings denies calling Nigeria agents of imperialism
Flt-Lt Rawlings denied accusing Nigeria of working for imperialism and queried, 'why would I accuse that nation or the government in that way at this time in West Africa's history to give cause for disunity between our two countries?"
He went on, "if Ghanaians had really wanted to call Nigeria names, it would have been long ago and not now. It would have happened during the early days of the revolution when Nigeria froze our oil supplies or in early 19883 when over a million of our people had to leave Nigeria almost overnight in circumstances of brutality and death. But we didn't do so because despite those painful problems the importance of maintaining a united front against greater problems and pressures far outweighed those tragic but temporary issues."
Flt-Lt Rawlings explained that when he spoke of agents of imperialism, he was talking about the individuals who served the forces of African disunity and that Nigeria has such agents within its government agencies, its labour movement and media. He however added, "so does Ghana, so does every African country. Some of them are very subtle in their operations, others are more clumsy and obvious."
The PNDC chairman said the real subject matter of his informed talks with OATUU delegates was to share his thoughts and analysis of how forces of disunity had made use of personal and factional differences and ambitions to create divisions and splits within bodies such as OATUU and OAU and that he hoped to open up new perspectives and increased awareness among fellow Africans of manoeuvres of imperialism.
Flt-Lt Rawlings said he was disappointed to note the reaction of Nigerian officials to the flood of misinformation and hoped that neighbours would be very wary of those who seek to create disunity between nations in order to serve interests other than African.
