Hold your leaders accountable – Zanetor

The Member of Parliament for Klottey Korle, Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, on Tuesday, 4 June 2019 called on Ghanaians to hold their leaders accountable, stating that if they do not perform to the citizens’ expectation, they must be asked to give account and do the proper thing.

The lawmaker, who is also the first daughter of the leader of the June 4 uprising, former President Jerry John Rawlings, said it was imperative that the electorate vote on issues that they know are possible.

In a passionate delivery at a durbar to climax the activities for marking the 40th-anniversary of the June 4 uprising, Dr Agyeman-Rawlings said: “We are discerning; we know what is true and what is not. Let us be guided by these principles in our choice of members of the assembly, members of Parliament and of the executive.

“Let us not think that it is just for four years and it will pass. A lot can happen in four years, so, every time we go to vote, let us remember these are the people we are giving the authority to do what they are meant to do on our behalf,” the Klottey Korle MP said.

She said the 40th-anniversary of the June 4 uprising was an opportunity to restore what Ghanaians believed in once upon a time and make sure that “the younger generation know where we came from”.

“Yes, our history is not always something pleasant and it is not always something that makes us rejoice but it is our history and we must not run away from the reality of where we came from in order to make sure that we build a strong path to where we want to be. That way, we build together and we move forward as one nation and one country,” Dr Agyeman-Rawlings stated.

Describing the celebration as a period for sombre reflection, Dr Agyeman-Rawlings said until we reach a point where the conditions that led to the June 4 uprising are no longer present, we always stand the risk of repeating history.

She said aside from honouring the memory of those who laid down their lives during the uprising, the commemoration was to celebrate the fact that Ghana has her Fourth Republic because the PNDC made it possible and the PNDC was borne out of the June 4 and 31 December revolutions.

Dr Agyeman-Rawlings said the blood that was shed following the uprising must be a constant reminder of the ultimate price that others paid for the values and principles to be restored.

“It is something that must serve as a memory on our conscience so that we do not lead ourselves into that situation again. The years that we have enjoyed stable constitutional rule are not by accident,” she said.