{"id":91017,"date":"2025-08-23T06:09:55","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T06:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=91017"},"modified":"2025-08-23T06:09:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T06:09:55","slug":"no-free-speech-under-rawlings-adutwum-reveals-harsh-political-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=91017","title":{"rendered":"No free speech under Rawlings \u2013 Adutwum reveals harsh political truth"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>1 Minute, 59 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, a New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer aspirant, has reflected on his time as a university student during the Jerry John Rawlings military regime, describing it as a key period of gagging without tolerance for opposing views.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with Aisha Ibrahim on JoyNews\u2019 Personality Profile, <\/em><\/strong>the former Minister of Education under the erstwhile Akufo-Addo administration recounted the \u201cculture of silence\u201d that permeated the country, where citizens feared expressing opinions against former President Rawlings.<\/p>\n

Dr. Adutwum, the MP for Bosomtwe, recalled events that defined the period from 1981 to 1992, when the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) governed by military decree. <\/p>\n

During this time, the fear of reprisal left many Ghanaians hesitant to voice opinions against the government. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople could not talk because you may be picked up the next day,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

In this climate, he explained, university students emerged as a vocal and influential opposition force. <\/p>\n

At the time, Ghana had only three universities: the University of Ghana, the University of Cape Coast, and the University of Science and Technology (UST), now Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).<\/p>\n

Students from these institutions, organised under the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), led nationwide demonstrations. <\/p>\n

Dr. Adutwum clarified that these protests were not over student welfare but a principled stand against the PNDC\u2019s rule, agitating for a return to civilian government.<\/p>\n

He recounted a pivotal moment when the government restructured university administration and introduced student loans, effectively ending the era of fully-funded tertiary education. <\/p>\n

Prior to this, students received free meals and housing, with two students per room. The move to a loan system sparked a major nationwide protest, leading to the shutdown of all universities.<\/p>\n

Dr. Adutwum shared a memorable anecdote from the protest at UST. <\/p>\n

He recalled how the then-student representative council (SRC) president was persuaded by his father to apologise to Rawlings through the Asantehene, Otumfuo Opoku Ware. <\/p>\n

This apology, intended to allow students to return to school, was seen as a betrayal by the student body. In a powerful display of internal accountability, the students successfully impeached their leader for apologising, underscoring their unwavering commitment to the cause.<\/p>\n

He concluded that these experiences\u2014organising protests, boycotting classes, and holding their own leaders accountable\u2014served as an invaluable \u201cleadership training ground\u201d that shaped his political convictions and those of his contemporaries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"NoDr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, a New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer aspirant, has reflected on his time as a university student during the Jerry John Rawlings military regime, describing it as a key period of gagging without tolerance for opposing views.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7151,1951,1883,117,1881,10,9,7152],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-speech","category-hp-news-1","category-national","category-news","category-npp","category-politics","category-popular","category-rawlings"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}