Former President Jerry John Rawlings was virtually moved to tears when he expressed concern about the level of corruption and indiscipline that had engulfed the country today.
This was when former Black Stars and Bayern Munich defender, Samuel Osei Kuffuor, paid a courtesy call on him last Friday at his Ridge office to specially invite him to watch his testimonial match at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi on Friday, December 23, 2011.
Present was Herbert Mensah, former Chief Executive Officer of the Kumasi Asante Kotoko Football Club. As it stood today, he said, Ghana as a country had become �extremely boring and stagnant with corruption, indiscipline, etc� noting that �this crass behaviour is just not good enough.�
He recalled with nostalgic memory how he was confronted with such kind of decadence in a certain country several years ago and prayed that �this disease does not engulf us here in Ghana�.
Mr Rawlings added, �But sorry, ladies and gentlemen, today this kind of selfish, crass behaviour is solidly in Ghana.�
�I remember I used to warn ourselves that if we do not deal, restore the moral behaviour and ethical values of our society, we will sink deep�, he noted, asking, �Can we rescue our values that are being replaced by money? Can we bring back the discipline we used to know, the dedication; that a young lady will have to sleep with somebody before she gets a job; this is not good enough. I bleed for this country.�
The former President emphasised, �Where we find ourselves is absolutely unnecessary.�
This, according to him, was because �all those big countries we see, they have not thrown their values overboard in spite of all the money they have�, asking, �How could you adopt money to replace your values?�
Mr Rawlings, who seems to have lost confidence in the very government he fought to bring to power, said, �I will continue repeating it.�
He expressed great honour at the invitation to grace the occasion and was full of praise for the former Bayern Munich and Black Stars defender, a man he said he had grown to respect, saying, �I am touched, grateful and honoured to be invited by Sammy to come and watch his testimonial game. I�m glad to hear that I did affect his life when he first started off. If he stood on the shoulders of someone who was great but was unknown, it is his mother; he probably doesn�t know what I know about his background.�
He said, �I�ll try my possible best to be there for the 23rd and I will like to appeal to all patriots, as many of them as can possibly can, to be there.�
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