June 4th 'Yaamutu'

The Independent says one of the key issues that Parliament will decide on when it meets on Tuesday and the next few days is whether this country should continue to celebrate June 4 as a public holiday or not.

The Kufuor government believes that Ghana should not celebrate June 4 as a holiday, although the New Patriotic Party is not unaware of the significance of events of June 4, 1979.

In the famous case brought by the NPP against the celebration of the December 31 coup d'etat against the Third Republic by Jerry John Rawlings, the party and its counsels led by the current Speaker of Parliament, Peter Ala Adjetey singled out the fact that June 4 was not against constitutional rule.

But the NPP then and now holds the view that in so far as June 4 was a military intervention it should not be celebrated as a public holiday to preserve the sacredness of constitutional rule. It was in the same spirit that the NPP would not like to celebrate as public holidays other dates with military reverberations.

Jerry John Rawlings who had no hand in the success of June 4, as a military ruler passed a decree to celebrate the date.