OPINION: Rawlings Will Forever Be Loved By The ZONGO Community

Just couple of days ago, former President Rawlings was in Nima, the heart of the Muslim community in Ghana where an abandoned national Mosque project was revived. If you were at the ceremony or had the opportunity to see it on television, you will be left with no doubt that the Muslim communities have a really special relationship with the former Ghanaian leader. The numbers of people who came to listen to him was overwhelming. It came to light at the concerned Muslim youth fund raising ceremony that the land on which the national Mosque project is been developed was given to the Muslim community in 1995 by then President Rawlings as part of his efforts to bring the Muslim community to the level of prominence it deserved in national affairs. Earlier, the President Rawlings had introduced and inculcated the Islamic Education Unit (IEU) into the Ghana Education Service (GES) which hitherto was Christian missionary driven and for which reason secular education remained suspect to the Muslim community in Ghana. Since then, the Muslim community has fully imbibed circular education as a complement to Islamic education. It should therefore not be surprising that there is such a massive show of love and support for the former first family whenever they are in the Muslim communities as J.J Rawlings stands out as the singular Ghanaian leader to have practically taken steps not only to uplift the welfare of the Muslim community in Ghana but to also put them at par with the prominence of other religious groupings in Ghana. There is no iota of doubt that The Zongo communities will forever remain loyal to the NDC and its founder for his consecrated commitment to their plight.