Use airwaves in decent manner — Rawlings

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has called on traditional leaders to use festivals and durbars to appeal to the supporters of the various political parties to desist from using provocative language and casting insinuations on the airwaves.

“You should use the opportunity of these festivals to admonish those who use coarse invectives and say soar and provocative things on the radio. This year being an election year, people are being very sensitive and I don’t think we should be creating undue stress leading up to it,” President Rawlings said.

A statement issued by the office of President Rawlings said he made the call at separate meetings with two traditional leaders when they called on him last Thursday.

The traditional leaders were Odeneho Dr Affram Brempong III, the Omanhene of Suma Ahenkro and Otuosiribour Safo Kankam I, the Manwerehene of Adoagyri. They had called on President Rawlings to invite him to the Suma Akwantu Kese Festival and the Adoagyiri Odwira respectively.

 Corruption

The former president also called on traditional leaders to speak up against wrong deeds such as corruption.

“The struggle and fight against corruption must be intensified from the top to the bottom, especially from the top. Your voices must be heard. You are the ones who see directly the plight of the people. There is no barrier between you and the people, ” he said.

 Adoagyiri Odwira

Nana Kankam, who was the first to call, invited the former President to the annual Odwira Festival of the people of Adoagyiri, which will be climaxed on Saturday, February 13, 2016.

It will be held on the theme, “Education: A key to National Development”.

 Akwantu Kese

Odeneho Brempong, who invited President Rawlings to the Suma Akwantu Kese to be held on March 19, 2016, expressed the gratitude of the people of Suma Ahenkro for the role the former president played in bringing electricity and other forms of development to their town and region.

Electricity, he stated, brought a lot of opportunities to the community. “If others are refusing to acknowledge what you did for their communities, we are,” he said.

Odeneho Brempong recalled that the first senior high school in Suma Ahenkro was established during the era of the former President.

He said the community was putting up a structure for a faculty of the University of Energy and Natural Resources.

Suma Ahenkro is a branch of the Jaman kingdom with parts of the kingdom in Cote d’Ivoire, having been split into two during the partitioning of the continent. The historical links and reverence for the paramount chief who is based in Cote d’Ivoire have, however, remained intact, Nana Brempong stated.

On that note, the former President asked Nana Brempong to invite Jaman people from both Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire to the festival.

“Let’s have a peaceful co-existence. Let’s not allow the borders to restrict us, to our own disadvantage,” he said.