Member of Parliament for the Ningo Prampram Constituency has revealed that he once wanted to join the military.
In an interview on Starr FM, he noted that he admired former President Jerry John Rawlings to the extent that he wanted to walk in his footsteps.
“Growing up, Rawlings was one of my role models, my idol. In fact, my first son (Jeremiah) was named after him, that is how much I adored the man,” he said.
He also noted that one of the factors that triggered his decisions was how Mr Rawlings was being treated at the time. Sam George said he was frustrated when the current President, Nana Akufo-Addo, who was then the Minister for Foreign Affairs, prohibited Mr. Rawlings from accessing the VIP lounge at the Kotoka International Airport and visiting military installations.
“I felt pissed off, so I said I was joining the cadet and when I finished, I was going to enlist in the army to follow Rawlings’ footsteps. I was very displeased with the way he was treated at the time. I thought it was unfair.”
He also mentioned that this informed his decision to join the cadet during his days at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and subsequently, purchased the army recruitment forms in 2005 after he graduated.
“Growing up in Nigeria,…if you live here in Ghana, you don’t understand. Rawlings is seen as a God in Nigeria, held in high esteem. Because the Nigerians had their version of Rawlings in 1979, General Idiagbon who was killed and they thought that Idiagbon was the one who was bringing discipline and started the kind of disciplinary reforms Rawlings started,” he said.
“You talk to Nigerians about Rawlings and he’s seen as a whole standard. So growing up there, it was a thing of pride. And for me to come to Ghana in 2001 when he had just left power and to see the way he was being treated, as a young boy, 17 or 18 years old, it really made my blood boil,” the Lawmaker told Host Bola Ray.
He said he was discouraged from joining the military by his mother after he bought the army recruitment forms.