The Crusading Guide 24 ? 06 - 99

Rawlings Must Apologise To Asantehene

"Rawlings Must Apologise To Asantehene" is the screaming headline across the front of the Crusading Guide.

The report says President Rawlings has been asked to render an unqualified apology to the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asanteman Council and all chiefs in the country.

This follows the President?s reportedly discourteous and impolite conduct exhibited to the Asantehene and his entourage when they paid a courtesy call on him at the castle a week ago.

In the forefront of the call for the Presidents apology is said to be Dr. Charles Wereko Brobby, leader and presidential aspirant of the United Ghana Movement (UGM) for the 2000 elections.

According to the Graphic, a press release issues by Dr. Wereko ?Brobby expressed his resentment at what he called the un-Ghanaian manner in which President Rawlings welcomed the Asantehene and his entourage which was made up of paramount chiefs of Asante states, imputing an intent of the President to slight his royal visitors.

"The brusque manner of the President?s welcome greeting, the incessant wagging of his fingers at the Asantehene and his Chiefs, and the intemperate language used to address the distinguished audience, all combined to create an impression of a deliberate desire to humiliate and belittle the Asantehene and the Asante nation a whole."

Dr. Wereko Brobby is reported to have accused the President of using the excuse of unfair media coverage of the process of succession to the late Otumfuo Opoku Ware II to attempt to berate the Asanteman Council and drive a wedge between Otumfuo Osei Tutu II and his cousin Nana Akwasi Agyemang, who is also the Kumasi Metropolitan Mayor.

Dr Wereko is reported to have noted that political power has its limitations as compared to the power that emanates from the willing and voluntary subjugation of a people to the authority of the monarch.

GRi