NEW LOOK Former President Jerry John Rawlings
Former President Jerry John Rawlings has likened the difficult times Ghana faced leading to the June 4, 1979 uprising, to the coronavirus pandemic.
Delivering a virtual speech on June 4, 2020, marking the 41st anniversary of revolution, Mr. Rawlings says “the difficult times we faced in the past that propelled the engine of the revolution is almost parallel in hardship with the present era of Covid-19.”
“But the question is, do we have the same mental fortitude and integrity that would enable us to survive the circumstances of today’s trials?” he quizzed.
Commenting on the significance of the anniversary celebration , the ex-military ruler stated that “commemorations like this allow us to ponder, reflect and re-examine ourselves – our conduct and policies and to see if these have properly been aligned to our core values of probity, accountability, integrity and social justice.”
According to him, “history, it is often said, repeats itself whenever we refuse to learn most especially from adversities and volcanic and near bloody eruptions.”
“We have many dedicated and learned men and women who could provide leadership at various levels to the benefit of this country.”
He added that “the very ordinary people in Ghana are not unwise about issues and developments in this country. We are, however, as a learned group unable to bring the best out of our people.”
“The inability of our people to communicate with us in the administrative English language puts them at a disadvantage and makes them unable to demand accountability and transparency from us.”
“The spirituality and respect in the language of our culture evokes and demands integrity, accountability and transparency from us. This, however, does not and cannot happen because the foreign and colonial language has been used opportunistically to intimidate and promote falsehood and degrade the essence and substance of our being,” he stated.
” Had we as a people carried our integrity and spirituality in our culture and language into the use of the administrative English language, a higher level of integrity would have been prevailing in Ghana and this continent and the quality of liberation would have enhanced our developmental efforts. The material and immaterial corruption in this country would not have undermined our ability and capabilities to the extent where the authority of truth would have been so badly undermined by the corrupted truth of authority,” according to him.
By Melvin Tarlue