Former President Jerry John Rawlings has expressed concern over what he described as a breakdown of the social sense of responsibility among the citizenry, leading to a rise in indiscipline and lawlessness in the country.
He said unlike in the past where laws were strictly enforced to compel people to be responsible for their own actions, robust structures to instil a sense of discipline in the citizenry had eroded in present times.
In the view of the former President, there was so much laxity in the country’s democratic structure such that people took undue advantage of the freedom they enjoyed and engaged in insanitary practices, including indiscriminate disposal of waste and open defecation.
Mr Rawlings was speaking when some assembly members from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) paid a courtesy call on him at his office in Accra last Monday.
“There is so much freedom today which is not making people become responsible for their actions. In the olden days, we established structures at the local level that ensured that people who went contrary to the law were punished.”
“We set up tribunals with its members including opinion leaders in the communities who punished wrongdoing. Unlike today where our gutters are choked, you dared not throw rubbish into drains or defecate at the beaches.”
“The collapse of the traditional courts paved way for people to go unpunished and, with time, our social sense of responsibility collapsed,” Mr Rawlings said.
Assembly members
About 30 assembly members drawn from the Okaikoi South, Ablekuma South, and Ashiedu Keteke sub-metros made up the delegation that paid the visit.
The visit, according to the Presiding Member of the AMA, Mr Alfred Adjei, who led the delegation, was for the assembly members to recognise Mr Rawlings’s contribution to the restoration of the local governance system in the Fourth Republic.
“We also want to tap into your rich experience in matters relating to local governance as the first President of the 4th Republic,” he added.
In line with the agenda, the delegation presented a citation to the former President for his “leadership and foresight in restoring local governance administration in the 4th Republic.”
Last week, the delegation visited former President John Agyekum Kufour and similarly eulogised him for his contribution towards the consolidation of the country’s local governance system.
Understand your role
Mr Rawlings urged the assembly members to learn the essence of the local governance structure to enable them to understand their roles in the decentralisation process.
He entreated them to utilise the power that they had to contribute to the transformation of their respective communities.
For his part, Mr Adjei expressed gratitude to Mr Rawlings for honouring their invitation and gave an assurance that his leadership would apply the lessons drawn from the visit.
Describing their visit to the two former presidents as an impactful exercise, he said the assembly would sustain such engagements in the interest of strengthening the country’s local governance system.
Source: Daily Graphic
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Ghanaba well said. Enough of cheap popularity is enough!!!!
You see corruption all around you and instead of talking about it, you're here talking about indiscipline. By the way who started this whole monster? Please, give us a break and keep your holiness. Corrupt to the core!
Indiscipline and lawlessness in the country, Rawlings, you started it. You gave birth to that as far back, 1979/1981 in the name of revolution. This is the legacy you’ given to Ghana. Afrc/pndc/ndc is all about lawlessness!!!
It is sad that this man is making this statement inferring that his time was better. Lord have mercy. I would not want to list all the indiscipline acts he led as leader of the country but will only sum it up as: RAWLINGS is an epitome of INDISCIPLINE. Just one thing. Has he soon forgotten when in those days when the elderly advised him he was on air telling the whole world that Mo su no koraa na me y3 no more? Has he also forgotten that he failed to build the countries institutions but showed himself as a strong man doing everything? What indiscipline is more than beating his own Vice Prez, an elderly man, at a cabinet meeting? Was he not the one who said when he talks chiefs (Cape Coast Chiefs) only nod their heads like lizards? What is more indiscipline than that? Didn't he and his little mind supporters overturn a taxi because of a traffic offence by the taxi driver instead of handing him over to the police? What is more indiscipline than that? Was he not the one who abolished traditional courts and denigrated our chiefs when he launched his sen.se.less revolution? Did he not jump into gutters to clean them just for cheap popularity instead of allowing the district assemblies to do their job? Didn't he know he was sending a message that the populace could dirty the gutters for the head of state to clean them by himself? Above all, he ensured the Constitution was drawn to satisfy his populist NON.sense instead of empowering the state institutions to work. What is he seeing differently now?This man should just shut his break else we bring out more cobwebs from his wardrobe.