Former president Jerry John Rawlings has taken a swipe at government and local authorities for looking on unconcerned as “trees are hacked down brutally’” and the environment degraded indiscriminately.
According to the former President, the level of indiscipline is getting out of hand because individuals and state institutions are unable to check and protect a basic component of human existence which is the environment.
Speaking at the 37th commemoration of the June 4 uprising memorial service in Accra, the former president said very little has been done to curb the indiscriminate “hacking down of trees over the years especially since I left office.
“Trees that were planted along the Tema motorway to Akosombo road were brutally hacked down a few months ago. Not even the traders who have decided to colonise the shoulders of our urban roads could protect these shade providing trees.”
The former president who was obviously very livid about the situation said “nothing reflects our irresponsibility and indiscipline more than the neglect of our environment. Nothing reflects the poor standard and authority of a government as the environment. The corruption of the environment is the quickest way to degrade our human self worth.
“And a government or local authority that would butcher trees or watch the degradation of its environment cannot expect people to behave responsibly in other facets of their lives.”
Why June 4, 1979
The day is being marked by the former president and his allies because on this day in 1979 he (Jerry Rawlings) was released from incarceration by other junior military officers because he had spoken against the then government and military officers over ‘corrupt practices, bad governance, lack of discipline both in the government and in the army’.
After his release, the then junior officer Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings was marched straight to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) where he made an announcement indicating that the junior officers had taken over the governance of the country.
There was mixed reaction to that announcement. Whiles others were excited to hear the news, others were in fear. Some senior military officers including General Afrifa, General F.K Akufo and Ignatius Kutu Acheampong were rounded up and executed by firing squad.
Aftermath
There was general fear and panic mixed with excitement depending on where one leaned, but from then on there was a gradually shift to the democratic dispensation Ghana is enjoying now. There were serious fallouts between Rawlings and some of his friends including Major rtd Boakye Gyan amongst others who had helped him in the early years of the coup.
By Martin Asiedu-Dartey|3news.com|Ghana
Twitter: @NewsyMartin