Former Ghanaian President, Jerry Rawlings, is dead.
The ex-military ruler died on Thursday at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana’s capital, aged 73.
Rawlings was a military leader and subsequent politician who ruled for a brief period in 1979 after a military coup and from 1981 to 2001.
The ex-leader came to power in 1979 as a flight lieutenant after leading an initial unsuccessful coup against the ruling military government in May of same year.
He handed over power to a civilian government but took back control on December 31, 1981. He resigned from the military in 1992, founded the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and consequently became the first President of the Fourth Republic.
He was re-elected in 1996 for four more years.