The former President and other leading chiefs at the festival
Former President Jerry John Rawlings has been installed chief of Anlo with the stool name Togbui Nutifafa Fiaga I at a colourful ceremony in the town in recognition of his lead role in fostering peace and stability in Ghana.
Togbui Fiaga I, in his inaugural address, expressed concern about the poor environmental and sanitation habits of Ghanaians, stating that “our responsibility and discipline as a people can be well judged by the way we handle our environment.
“By contrast, the degradation of the environment is the quickest way to degrade our human self-worth, and a government or local authority that would butcher trees or watch the degrading of its environment cannot expect people to behave responsibly in other facets of their life or respect their government, the former President noted.
President Rawlings described as a “gross indictment” the situation where formal education has rather led to the proliferation of poor hygienic habits and environmental degradation when the opposite was the case during the era of non-formal education.
He said some countries in Africa and parts of the developing world have adopted democracy from the textbook without recourse to the intrinsic values of democracy in their local cultures.
“We have used the English language as a symbol of authority and power but not as a symbol of respect and integrity.
The former President highlighted the weakness in Western democracy, which is being manifested today when he addressed a durbar last Saturday at Tadzewu in the Volta Region to mark the mini-Hogbetsotso festival of the people of Anlo.
“The West is today getting a taste of the weaknesses of multi-party democracy that we have to put up with in our part of the world. While our old traditional culture of democracy was able to contain such weaknesses, the Western multi-party democratic practice appears almost incapable of containing corruption in its various forms.
“We have adopted the worst out of the West and used it to pin down and suppress the good qualities in our culture,” the former President said.
The former President called on chiefs to recognize their roles as critical in ensuring peace and enriching national discourse.
“That can only be achieved if we demonstrate integrity and truth even at the risk of sounding politically incorrect.”
Flt Lt Rawlings also informed the gathering that the Rawlings Foundation was being established to cater for a broad array of areas, including the environment, provision of humanitarian relief, quality education for the under-privileged and brilliant students, civic responsibility and social justice.
The Foundation, the former President added, will also seek to conserve and protect the biodiversity of the fishing communities, as well as the ecological integrity of the Volta Lake.
President Rawlings thanked the chiefs and people of Anlo for the honour done him and dedicated the award to all peace-loving people in Ghana and across the world.
Present at the ceremony was the Awoamefia of the Anlo State, Torgbui Sri III.