The leader of the media and publicity committee for the 38th anniversary celebration of the June 4 revolution, Mr. Kofi B. Kukubor has said the relevance of the celebration goes beyond a day’s event.
Speaking to Kwame Tutu on Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm, he said there are two schools of thought when a discussion is raised around the revolution.
Some look at June 4 as an event that means the military coup but for us, the June 4 is more than an event that occurred once in the history of Ghana’s political light, he said.
He said, the June 4 revolution did not occur for any reason but an opportunity to restore sanity and discipline in the broken system.
‘’There is a reason why June 4 coup took place, it was a period where the country was virtually at a collapse. When you go back and read the reports from the World Bank, IMF and our economic political history, you will realize that the country was running to a halt and the IMF declared Ghana as a failed state.’’
He explained that the June 4 was led by some military officers and received acceptance from Ghanaians who were not satisfied with the corruption and lack of discipline at the time.
There was no accountability, and transparency and the country was seeking for people to hold government accountable and people wanted social justice and equity distribution of the national cake, but those things were not available at that time.
‘’It is the principle that underpinned June 4 that we celebrate every year…The June 4 has a principle and we feel that principle is timeless, and that principle applies to every national governance and even corporate governance. Everybody wants accountability and social justice in governance and that is what we celebrate every year. It is the principle of June 4,’’ he said.
Mr. Kukubor stressed, if we go into history, we have improved to some extent.
‘’June 4 also came to stop every coup that was happening in the country’’ he stated adding, the June 4 allowed us to achieve political stability.’’
He added, we are encountering corruption within our government although the revolution was against it and has called for action against the canker.
He called for education and the change of mindset in the fight against corruption.
‘’We are now experiencing some political degree of some corruption in government which June 4 was intended to stop. So we will say that yes, when it comes to corruption, to a large extent, we have not achieved that but to stop corruption; it cannot be achieved by one event. It must be achieved by a conscious process which the lecture series is intended to achieve.’’
He was quick to add, the June 4 revolution made access to goods and services much easier.
‘’When it comes to economy and access to goods and services; before June 4 1979, we knew what our parents had to go through to even buy a common soap, tooth paste, they had to cross the border to Togo and had to go through a Commissioner and if you did not have a connection with a Commissioner,’’ you will not have access to goods and services.
‘’Makola was a place of ‘Kalabule’…But now all these things have been removed, and so when you compare history to now, yes, some degree of improvement has been made.’’
He charged Ghanaians not to look only at the negative sides although people lost their lives but consider the positive gains that it brought the country.
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