JJ Rawlings: You have to take power by force!

The Accra Daily Mail (via All Africa) reports on an alleged coup alert in Ghana. Not surprisingly, the man at the center of the allegations is the country's former strongman Jerry John Rawlings.

Rawlings, an insatiable egomaniac who detests nothing more than being out of the media spotlight, told a meeting of his National Democratic Congress (NDC) party that they couldn't wait for next year's elections to seize power.

"You think you can get power from the NPP [ruling New Patriotic Party] like that? You go get it by force."

He re-iterated, "You have to take it by force."

Its no idle threat coming from Rawlings. He has a proven record of doing exactly that, seizing power via military coups in both 1979 and 1981.