JJ And Wife Separate

Information reaching the Daily Guide newspaper indicates that former President John Jerry Rawlings and his wife Nana Konadu are now living apart in various homes since the ravaging February 14 fire devoured their government-owned Ridge residence. The information says one week after the fire that rocked the country, one in a string of serial deadly fires, the government is yet to house the former First Family, either temporarily or permanently. Reports say while Mr. Rawlings shuttles between his abode in Wume-Tefle, near Sogakope in the Volta region and Accra, his wife is perching with her mother, Mrs Agyeman at her Nyaniba Estates home. It will be recalled that soon after the devastating fire last Sunday, President Mills, his Vice, the Chief of Staff and a string of government officials stormed the burnt residence to offer their condolences and promised to house the Rawlings family immediately. A week later, nothing has been heard of the high octane promises from government. Furthermore, 14 months after he assumed control of the seat of government, President Mills has failed to accommodate his predecessor, ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor, as required by law. By the Constitution, both former presidents are entitled to accommodation and adequate office and staff equal to what they enjoyed as presidents. However, since the National Democratic Congress (NDC) took over the reins of power, it has refused to or delayed in accommodating the recently out-gone former president. An attempt by Mr. Kufuor to �accommodate� himself was swiftly rebuffed as National Security moved to virtually throw out his things from an office at Osu. Since the fire that ravaged the Rawlingses� home, the government has announced that it had secured a building for Kufuor, a claim which has since been denied by the spokesman of the former president, Frank Agyekum. Mr. Kufuor has since, he left office, been �hanging� in the hall of his private home at the Airport Residential area from where he operates. As things stand now, it seems Mr. Rawlings will have to move into his private Adjirigano house if he wants to live under the same roof with his wife and as well operate an office from his sitting room. Last Saturday, the Liberian president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf visited the Ridge residence of Mr. Rawlings to console the former First Family over the disaster. Mr Rawlings was not in the ruined house at the time, as he had not returned from Vume. Accompanied by Liberian Ministers of State and the Liberian Ambassador to Ghana, Mrs. Johnson expressed her shock at the level of destruction, saying she had been under the impression that just part of the residence had been destroyed. Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, who together with her daughters, Yaa Asantewaa and Amina, received President Johnson, recounted how she escaped the fire with Yaa Asantewaa. The Liberian leader noted in the visitors� book that all Liberians were saddened by the situation, stating that the former First Couple had been instrumental in assisting Liberia to recover from the civil war. It would be recalled that during the Liberian civil war, Rawlings led his ECOWAS colleagues to establish the ECOMOG force to maintain peace in Liberia. Ghana also hosted thousands of fleeing Liberian refugees during the Rawlings regime.