The Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, in a spirited tone last Friday night urged Ghanaians to put aside political partisanship and work selflessly towards the restoration of the pride of the nation.
He said the nation had now assumed a recalcitrant stance as a result of undue politicisation of matters of development, a situation which had stalled the progress of the nation.
�We cannot remain here. We cannot have this recalcitrant status quo, moving forward. This is not what we envisaged when we adopted the 1992 Constitution,� the Okyenhene said.
Nana Amoatia Ofori Panin said this when he delivered his closing remark as chairman for the third Excellence Awards and Dinner Dance of the Institute of Public Relations, Ghana, (IPR) at the Banquet Hall of the State House. It was on the theme: "Promoting excellence in Public Relations practice in Ghana."
The spirited tone of the Okyenhene, driven by passion, kept the audience�s attention on him; those who were eating at the time temporarily suspended it to listen attentively.
Ghana is now poor without options
Ghana, he said, used to be a poor country with opportunity but that status had changed dramatically, and now Ghana is �poor without option.�
The time had come, he said, for all Ghanaians to place the country first before partisan interests and to speak the truth even if that meant an unpleasant outcome for the speaker, otherwise the future of the younger generation and those unborn would remain bleak and uncertain.
The Ghanaian, he said, had traditionally been brought up to respect all in society, regardless of status, but that kind of training had become a thing of the past.
He added, �We were taught to be respectful to all, but today people go on the airwaves to insult. We don�t need to talk down our nation. We don�t need to make Ghana look bad. We have lost something and we need to put it back.�
The pursuit of excellence
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the CDH Financial Holdings, Mr Emmanuel Adu Sarkodie, said the pursuit of excellence was not a position to be attained but one that involved constant striving to improve and set higher standards.
He said the time had come for the practice of PR to be underpinned by a more balanced relational and interactive approach.
A Deputy Minister of Communications, Mr Ato Sarpong, said the changing world of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) required the need for adaptability and change of mind-sets in the practice.
He, therefore, cautioned practitioners that �past accomplishments do not guarantee future successes.�
He urged the IPR to use their expertise to help the government to manage the emotions of the people of Ghana and urged them to play that role for the benefit of Ghana.
Award winners
The night saw the Chief Executive Officer of Stratcomm Africa, Ms Esther Cobbah, being crowned the PR Personality of the Year 2013.
Airtel Ghana�s �Touching Lives Season Two� won in two categories as the PR Campaign and the Best Community Relations Programme of the Year.
In addition, Airtel Ghana won the Public Relations Organisation � telecommunications, as well as the Social Media Organisation of the Year.
Anglogold Ashanti won the Public Relations Organisation for the extractive industry while Ghana Electrometer and CDH Holdings Limited won the PR organisations for the manufacturing and financial sectors, respectively.
Mr Donald Gwira of Airtel Ghana was adjudged the PR Discovery of the Year 2013.
The PR Personality of the year 2013, Ms Esther Cobbah, said she was humbled by the recognition and that she and Stratcom would continue to use their talents to project PR practice in Ghana.
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