Asante students want Rawlings to apologise to Asantehene

Kumasi (Ashanti), 29th June 99 -

The Asante Students Union Alumni (ASUA) has called on President Jerry John Rawlings to apologise to the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, and Asanteman.

The Union asked the President to apologise for the manner he addressed the Asantehene and his entourage, when they called on him at the Castle, Osu about two weeks ago.

ASUA said the President talked to the Asantehene and the other chiefs and pointed at them with his left index finger.

Mr Kwabena Owusu Dwomo, President ASUA, was addressing a press conference in Kumasi, on Monday.

He said the Union was not worried about the issues President Rawlings spoke about but was rather concerned about how he "slighted the Asantehene, in particular, and his distinguished entourage".

Mr Dwomo said ASUA believes that the President did what he did for one of two reasons.

It was either out of ignorance of the fact that it is disrespectful and, therefore, unacceptable, at least to Asantes, that their chiefs, let alone their King, be addressed in that manner or that it was deliberately done.

ASUA said the President went to the extent of saying that the bad press Nana Akwasi Agyeman received in the media in the run-up to finding a successor to Otumfuo Opoku Ware II gave Otumfuo Osei Tutu II the advantage to be selected as the successor to the Golden Stool.

He said the selection of an Asantehene is more intricate than it might seem to the President, adding that ASUA is concerned about how the President talks to all chiefs in the country and more so the Asantehene.

The Union submitted that the manner in which the President addressed the Asantehene and his entourage has deeply hurt the sensibilities of Asanteman.

Mr Dwomo said if the President does not apologise, the Union would take it to mean that he intentionally decided to slight the Asantehene and Asanteman.

GRi?/