People’s Power Thirty Years On!.

By Lord K. Prempeh

“Always be capable of feeling any injustice committed against anyone in the world” Che Guevera

History has never been dominated by majorities, but only by dedicated minorities who stand unconditionally on their faith. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said “Almost always the creative, dedicated minority has made the world better”.

It is believed that the outermost sphere of the fixed stars was moved by the Prime Mover, the liberator which governed the entire universe. I therefore dedicate this article to the former President Jerry John Rawlings and his brave men who decided to take a bold stand to serve this country on June 4th 1979. The former President Jerry John Rawlings is therefore a Prime Mover and a liberator of our time. I think also the opening quote fits the character of the man who led the June 4th Revolution. On this day they risk their life to lift us up, thirty years have passed and the ideas still live on. When some of us in our teens remember that faithful day, we can say it was a historic event from day one. What a moment to be proud of and if you are among those students who sand bags for security posts you will feel that you were part of history.

It is time to congratulate all those individuals who over the years have kept their faith with the former President J. J. Rawlings more especially the past eight years when I think his works and that of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah have come under total destruction but they did not allow it to happen they saved it.

The years ahead call for further dedication, sacrifices and courage in shaping the destiny of this country slowly but surely. It’s going to be harder than all that we have truly passed through because we cannot help betraying the people’s trust anymore. For those our leaders who now take leadership role, they should bear this point in mind each waking moment for they will not be spared at all. For those who will complain negatively in public about this glorious day, know deep in their heart that the man H.E. J. J. Rawlings is indeed a great son of not only Ghana but Africa. We are very proud that we have produced another great leader for the African people. For the enemy within us, it’s time to reflect whether the job being done for the colonial masters is worth it. We salute you but the greatest respect that will come to you is for every individual Ghanaian to protect these noble goals and objectives of June 4th. Even though there is much work to be done, we Ghanaians must feel very proud that the man is around that should have simply make us more united and forward looking but our distractors are at their old games once again. The past eight years alone is a remarkable playback of what happened to our first President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The quote below speaks so loudly about the leadership role that the former President J. J. Rawlings has exhibited for the past thirty years.

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt, America’s 26th President If there is any time in history of our continent Africa and Ghana in particular that we need these individuals in all fields of human endeavor to accelerate our development, this is the time we need them most. We have some in the past but we destroyed them, do we continue to destroy these leaders again and again? Have we learned from our past? How can we allow others to help us destroy our leaders these outstanding individuals then betray the people including our own? The June 4th revolution brought about a process of giving power to the people; that journey was quite hard and long above all our future is entirely within our own control. It is not at the mercy of any capricious or uncertain external power. It shouldn’t have been so hard and long but human nature is such that we always fear change even if it will uplift our lives. What we have gone through is just a small part of the journey the only issues at stake now are that the past can remind us when we make certain decisions which we have made in the past and they have failed us badly we cannot go back to think that this time it will work because there is a different person in charge. We have to take a new approach even if it means going outside the box to solve problems no matter how painful it will be; we must be bold and courageous. Power to the people is great statement and it has lived with us for thirty years. Africa Must Unite is another great statement also about forty-six years now it also lives on. I hope this time we will move forward and never come back but depend on the mindset of cadres of the NDC and the genuine followers of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. However, to all cadres, the greatest approach will be self discipline, honesty and the desire to self educate ourselves to understand what really is in front of us. If we do so, there will be unity of purpose within the rank and file of the NDC party as a whole; this is a very very important issue. As dedicated cadres home and abroad we should understand that the cake is so big that we cannot only think of ourselves and our immediate family only but with hard work, with honesty we can even make life far better for everyone including our distracters; with that there will be no fear towards the future, the system that we are able to create will take care of everyone. Currently, there seems to be lack of total understanding of the task ahead so many individuals in some small positions of power feel that that is all about change. It is the duty of all progressive Ghanaians to stand up if we do just that those entire little minds that feel that being a Minister or so is all about change Ghanaians voted for. Freedom will guarantee that people pursue good intentions and virtues, through principles such as honesty and respect for one another. Personal happiness, wealth, honesty and integrity will further promote our ability to learn and understand our freedoms, because our options have exponentially multiplied.

By continuing to build upon the foundations of our predecessors, our people will continue to walk forwards through evolution. It has often been said “that’s one small step for humanity, one giant leap for mankind”. People’s power is ultimately humanity’s ability to agree on key issues for the general improvement of society. People’s power includes every human on the planet, whilst political, economic or corporate motivate organizations can be secular, preferential and biased towards equitable development.

Therefore, developing people’s power and human sufficiency will contribute to the positive evolution of our society and will advance the dreams and desires of the gallant soldiers of the 4th of June 1979 revolution, who took up arms to risk their own lives to save this country for good.

The problems at stake now are even more; let me make a brief point here. On education, we seem not to have even released the nature of the problem, we are doing our best just to maintain the status quo. Do we identify that our major problem comes from our educational system? We have not yet noticed the causes of our ignorance the past fifty-two years? If we do we will have designed a fast track educational system that will liberate everyone and make every Ghanaian stay and work for his/her country.

Our dreams should have been , even if we have to even travel out it will not be for green pastures but rather, to help other African countries. But what have we been able to achieve; we educate in order that we can enslave ourselves to the colonial masters.

Today, with the high level of technology and ICT and advances made in brain sciences, we can take advantage of it to advance our educational system at the lowest cost even reducing it by half both in cost and duration and making it more simple but enduring and cost effective.

The solution lies in empowering individuals because it takes the collective entrepreneurial actions of hundreds of thousands of citizens to create a buoyant economy. Unfortunately, our educational system has not placed any premium on equipping students with thinking and success skills not even on self-education.

The development of intellectual capital in a nation, in an organization provides a cost-effective means to sustainable competitive advantage leading to greater success and prosperity. For the past several years, the macroeconomic indicators of the economy of Ghana have seemed to suggest that the economy had never performed better.

“Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end”, is a famous saying which typifies what a truly egalitarian society with good intentions would endeavor to achieve.

Finally I salute the former President J. J. Rawlings and his family and wish him long life and happiness and always in great Health; we need you around at all times. Thanks. I will give out a nice e-book to all who care to request. Send email to [email protected]