- "Ghana is a country with exceptional human talent. Time is ticking fast and yet we can make things right if we work as one nation with a common destiny. As I have said in the past, broad consultations and consensus building does not take anything away from a leader."
John Dramani Mahama, the former president, has declared that the country is facing a crisis of confidence in political leadership.
The 2020 flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is calling for broader consultation and consensus around issues such as economic recovery strategy, or implementational challenges of Free Senior High School in the national interest.
In a statement to commemorate 4 June uprising, Mahama said the values espoused by the uprising four decades ago are still relevant in the current democratic dispensation.
The 4 June Revolution or Uprising was a military revolt in Ghana in 1979 that arose out of a combination of corruption, bad governance, frustration among the general public, and lack of discipline and frustrations within the Ghanaian army.
Although 4 June 1979 has become a noted date in Ghana’s history, it brought a great deal of pain to people who lost loved ones, lost their businesses or had to flee the country.
This is the first time the NDC is commemorating the day without its founder, the late former president Jerry John Rawlings.
Below is Mahama’s full post:
For the first time, the people of Ghana, comrades, supporters and sympathizers of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will commemorate the June 4 Uprising without the inspirational and arresting physical presence of the founder of our party, Flight Lieutenant (rtd) Jerry John Rawlings, our former President, who departed from us last year.
He was a key influence on Ghana’s history for the two decades straddling the late 70s till year 2000. The June 4 Uprising was an epochal event that represents a major landmark in our nation’s existence. Together with its sister event, the 31st December Revolution, the two shaped the course of Ghana’s history resulting in a turnaround in Ghana’s economic fortunes and the advent of the 4th Republic.
Forty-two years on, our economy and democracy are in dire straits. Economic hardship, insecurity, political and ethnic polarization, deepening inequality, politicization of our democratic institutions, corruption, serious problems in the education and health sectors are challenges Ghanaians are confronted with in our daily lives.
This has led to a crisis of confidence in the political leadership.
Ghana is a country with exceptional human talent. Time is ticking fast and yet we can make things right if we work as one nation with a common destiny. As I have said in the past, broad consultations and consensus building does not take anything away from a leader.
Broad consultations that bring the best and brightest together with stakeholders can forge consensus around issues such as economic recovery strategy, or implementational challenges of Free SHS in the national interest.
The values June 4 espoused some four decades ago, remain as relevant today as ever before in our nation’s democratic journey. June 4 engendered hope in our people that the ills of our society would be rooted out and replaced with values of virtue and honesty.
If we must get our people to hope again and to trust in our institutions and government, then we must encourage “fearless honesty” as enjoined by our national anthem.
We must embrace and be guided by truth, transparency, probity and accountability – principles that have been bequeathed unto us, which are the bedrock upon which our nation, undoubtedly, will become great, strong, resilient and prosperous.
We must encourage freedom of thought and expression rather than a culture of hypocrisy and silence.
May the spirit of our Founder live on!
I wish all our comrades a happy June 4 Anniversary!
John Dramani Mahama
Former President of Ghana
Fred Dzakpata
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