Below are some key points as contained in the powerful speech delivered by Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, National Chairman of NDC:
“The purpose of celebrating our founder JJ Rawlings is to learn from the principles he tried to put in the psychic of Ghanaians. For each day we do the celebration, we must go home with some takeaways. I want to urge the party that we should take the lead to try to define our national values – there is no country that has developed without regards for its values ”
” We need to ask questions, as Ghanaians, what are our aspirations, what are the things we believe in, what represent our code of conduct. It is not too late. We can look at our great leaders and the values they espouse, even if possible, let us take the debate to Parliament and define our national values to Judge our leadership and citizens. Going forward, so if you are deviating from our national values, there is something we can use to measure our conducts- that our founder JJ Rawlings espoused Probity and accountability. That it doesn’t matter where you are placed or position you occupied as a citizen, you must always remember that you must account for your stewardship how you exercise that authority”
“Our founder was known for his punctuality : he understood time as money and would not tolerate lateness to any event ; is it too much for us to demand punctuality from our citizens?? Let us try and push punctuality into our Citzen and it will help us save a lot of money by using time ”
” JJ Rawlings respected time hence he would apologize to even school children when he was late to any event due to urgent circumstances : it is a value we must take home.
“JJ espoused the value of Positive Defiance. He thought us to be defiant positively and question leadership respectfully when they are doing something wrong but they want to take us along”
” Whatever affects all must be decided by all – JJ held this view and he was tagged as a dictator. Before budget drafts were to be discussed at cabinet, JJ always took steps and called on market women to seek their views first. That is the man we are celebrating today”
Bismark Kwabla Kpobi
