Former President, Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings has said some countries in Africa and other parts of the developing world are facing governance challenges because they adopted Western democracy without recourse to the intrinsic values of democracy in their local cultures.
He said that Ghana, like many African countries, has used the English language as a symbol of authority and power but not as a symbol of respect and integrity.
The former President adds made the comments 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 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.
Flt Lt Rawlings was at a colourful ceremony also installed a chief of the Anlo State for his lead role in fostering peace and stability in Ghana, with the stool name Togbui Nutifafa Fiaga I.
In his inaugural address, the former President expressed concern about the poor environmental and sanitation habits of Ghanaians and stated 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,” he said.
Former 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.
The former President urged chiefs to recognize their roles as critical in ensuring peace and enriching national discourse.
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 livelihoods 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.
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