Institute memorial lectures to honour former President Rawlings -Torgbiga Fugah

The Ewe Community in the Ashanti, Ahafo and Brong-East Regions, have suggested to the government to institute memorial lectures in honour of the late former President Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings.

According to the Community, the patriotism, commitment to duty and sense of discipline demonstrated by the late President, Ghana’s longest-serving leader, was worth emulating.

“We have a lot of lessons to learn from his military adventurism and subsequent life as a democratically-elected President and Statesman,” Torgbiga Mawufeame Fugah, President of the Community, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Kumasi.

The late Flt. Lt. Rawlings, who passed on to glory on Thursday, November 12, 2020, at the ripe age of 73, seized power twice in military coups (1979, 1981).

In spite of this, he is regarded as a driving force behind Ghana’s emergence as a stable democratic country, and is credited with returning the country to constitutional rule in 1993 under the Fourth Republican Constitution.

His peaceful handing over power in 2001, after about twenty years of rule, would set the tone for sustainable peace and successful transitions by successive elected governments in the country.

Former President Rawlings was well noted for his strong belief in transparency, accountability and probity.

“One cannot talk about the journey we have made so far in Ghanaian politics without recognizing our late President,” Torgbiga Fugah noted, saying the up and coming youth had a lot to learn from the country’s past.

He paid tribute to the deceased Statesman for his selflessness and passion for national issues.

Meanwhile, the three-day (January 24-27) final funeral rites organized by the state for the late former President is currently underway in Accra.

Some residents of Kumasi, in an interview with the GNA, expressed their condolences to the bereaved family and relatives of the late President, as they paid tribute to him for paying his dues to the country.