General News of Tuesday, 15 August 2017

Source: classfmonline.com

Let's fix wrongs: Rawlings

Former President Rawlings has charged Ghanaians to act as watchdogs in the society Former President Rawlings has charged Ghanaians to act as watchdogs in the society

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has called on the citizenry not to lose the chance to rectify what is wrong in the fabric of the Ghanaian society.

“Our country Ghana has great and patriotic citizens, but the country is fast falling under the control and ownership of three groups of people, the second and third of which were spawned by the first (details in due course),” he stated via his twitter handle.

On twitter, he stated that what these three groups have in common is their crass mindedness and alarming greed.

Self-introspection

All around the world, Mr Rawlings noted, a change in government presented the opportunity for self-introspection by citizens regardless of partisan loyalty, saying: “Lessons are learnt from both defeat and victory.”

According to the former President, Ghana's chance to break free from the increasing influence and control of these rogues is to use the current political environment to regain what “we as a nation have lost over the past couple of decades.”

Empathy

“Let us support cultured people who show empathy for the common man and appear quite serious about fighting corruption. Let us make it our duty and passion to provide not only the needed support but also more importantly, to shield such people from the corruptible tendencies of high office.

Let's not lose this chance to restore decency into our social and political culture,” he concluded.

It was difficult, however, to infer from the twitter message who the former President referred to as the three groups who had in common their crass mindedness and alarming greed.

The former President himself has been a harsh critique of his party, the National Democratic Congress, and many a time blamed them for pervasive corruption. He is also a strong advocate of probity and accountability in governance.

In his own party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), there were accusations and counter accusations between former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu and former Deputy Chief of Staff, Dr Valerie Sawyerr last week.

Some functionaries within the party also jumped into the fray heightening the already acrimonious relationship within the party leadership over who is to actually be blamed for the party’s woes.

It was not known if former President Jerry John Rawlings was referring to the brouhaha within the NDC or was speaking in general to the Ghanaian populace.

The former President himself has been a harsh critique of his party and many a time blamed them for pervasive corruption. He is also a strong advocate for probity and accountability in the governance process.