The Okyenhene, Amoatia Ofori Panin II, is worried over the disrespectful behaviour children of today, as they, without fear, are able to insult people who are older than them.
According to the Chief of the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area, gone were the days when a child would stop whatever he/she was doing to help an elderly person, but same is not the situation today.
He has, however, advised parents and guardians to nurture their children properly to respect people who are older than them.
He also has advised against the use of unprintable words on people in authority, including chiefs, politicians, pastors, and teachers, just to mention few.
He urged parents to help their wards to “learn, and teach them to be obedient. Every child can get up to insult an elderly person.
“They are insulting chiefs; they are insulting politicians; they are insulting pastors; they are insulting teachers; we were not brought up like that,” he remarked passionately in the Akan language.
But, “whoever does not respect will not live long – It’s in the Bible. If you don’t respect authority, you won’t live long. When we were young, if you saw an old lady carrying firewood, you would stop playing your football and go for the firewood to her house. What happened that today they (children) open their mouth to insult elderly people. We have to change.”
His comments come on the heels of a derogatory statement by an executive member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Ashanti Region, Kwame Zu.
The latter was reported to have said in an interview that but for the intervention of his boss, former President Mahama, who gave the people of Kyebi safe drinking water, the Okyenhene would have still be sharing drinking water with “animals.”
This comment triggered excessive anger in the people of Akyem Abuakwa, who staged a demonstration to register their displeasure. Kwame Zu has since apologized.
Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin was speaking at the 20 years anniversary celebration of Olam Cocoa Company in Ghana, an event which took place in Accra yesterday.
He bemoaned the unfair treatment cocoa farmers are witnessing and indicated that no cocoa farmer is a millionaire, despite the importance of their work to the country and the world.
Relating the future of Ghana to her key occupation (farming), the Okyenhene stressed that “the future of Ghana was in agriculture and not in mining, let’s take note,” he ended.
The ceremony which assembled over 3,000 stakeholders in the Olam value chain, including cocoa farmers, also had the Vice President, Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia, as the Guest of Honour.
In his address, the Vice President indicated that the government was working to make sure that it was able to determine the price of cocoa on the international market, a move which, he said, should begin next year.
He said President Akufo-Addo and his counterpart, Alassane Quattara, President of Côte d’Ivoire, had come together to ensure cocoa farmers got what they deserved. Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire together produce sixty-seven percent of the world’s cocoa.
“Government has not relented in its efforts at supporting the Ghana Cocoa Board to ensure the sustainability of the cocoa industry. We are, however, confronted with challenges which may affect the cocoa sector in our developmental efforts.”
Meanwhile, he said those challenges were the reason the government was supporting cocoa farmers by providing them with fertilizers, and also instructing COCOBOD to make sure that by next year all fertilizer it acquires were locally manufactured.
He commended Olam Ghana for the tremendous work it had done for the past twenty years since the inception of the company.
Source: The Chronicle
