Keep Mandela’s example alive — Rawlings
Former President Jerry John Rawlings has challenged African leaders to emulate the shining example of the late former South African President, Nelson Mandela, who worked for the betterment of his people in particular and Africa in general.
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He said the ideals of the late global peace icon as a selfless voice for the world’s oppressed must not be allowed to die with him.
Former President Rawlings extolled the virtues of the late South African leader in Accra yesterday when he signed the book of condolence opened for President Mandela at the High Commission of South Africa in Accra.
He said Mandela was a symbol of resilience, fortitude, patience and tolerance and also exhibited exceptional leadership qualities which would shape and inspire present generations and those yet unborn.
He stressed that Mandela had given Africa a unique leadership which African leaders should strive to live by.
Tribute
Former President Rawlings paid glowing tribute to Mandela as a man of great spiritual elegance, an enigma, yet an icon of true reconciliation and a man who embodied a unique political culture.
“His capacity, power, empathy, his psychological understanding of the pain of humanity were such that he just could not abdicate his responsibility,” he added.
“He was a man of great spiritual elegance, a man of towering moral height. His moral compass pointed out to millions around the world a moral mandate strong enough to prompt defiance of leaders bent on propping up the apartheid regime,” he said.
Lone Voice
Former President Rawlings recalled that at the collapse of the bi-polar world, and while the unipolar world was beginning to over-assert itself, Mandela was the one voice strong enough to call the rest of the world to order over the excesses in Iraq, saying that he was that moral conscience of the world whose voice the West dared not disobey.
“Only Mandela could say ‘enough is enough’,” he said, maintaining that Mandela’s selflessness transcended continental boundaries, while his activism and endearing fortitude helped blaze the trail and made it possible for the Black man to be acceptable to the psyche of humanity and White supremacists.
That strength to fight for the common good, he said, made it easier for US President Barack Obama to be seen as a potential leader and eventually voted into office as a leader.
“What will now be lost to the world is the unifying effect of a man who held to his sense of purpose in the face of Western governments who branded him for years as a terrorist when he was a dignified freedom fighter.”