Youth advised to respect others’ opinions
A former Commandant of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Major General Richardson Edwin Baiden, has advised the youth to cultivate the habit of tolerance and respect for the opinions of others even if they disagreed with them.
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He said successful societies thrived on mutual respect and the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
Orleans-Pobee’s lecture
Maj. Gen. Baiden gave the advice when he delivered the third R.T. Orleans-Pobee Annual Lectures on the theme: “Uniting a generation to take up the story”.
The lectures were instituted three years ago by the old students of the Adisadel College to honour the first black Headmaster of the school, Mr R.T. Orleans-Pobee, who took over the affairs of the school in 1963.
“It is necessary to be open to new ideas, show a high tolerance for dissent and criticism and freely engage in the process of rethinking and networking to enrich what we have set ourselves to do,” Maj. Gen. Baiden stressed.
He said criticism was good, but destructive criticism without a constructive alternative was bad, adding “we need to value criticism as the driving force of change.”
He said there was the need for the government to create equal opportunities for the youth to speak out on issues that affected their future.
Transformation of Adisadel
Maj. Gen. Baiden recalled that when Mr Orleans-Pobee was the headmaster of the college, it witnessed tremendous transformation in academic work and co-curricular activities and urged old students to ensure that wherever they found themselves, they would emulate the traits of Mr Orleane- Pobee.
He described Mr Orleane Pobee as a team player, a disciplinarian, affable and easily approachable person who would not compromise or would not be corrupted, adding “No wonder he is the headmaster who ran the school the longest, from 1963 to 1974.”
Maj. Gen. Baiden, a member of the 1964 year group, lauded the role played by the various year groups which included the provision of an E-library at the school for use by staff and students.
Linking the old and young
Maj. Gen. Baiden observed that the younger generation of the school did not share in the values, ambitions and traditions that the older generation upheld and defended.
“There is the need to work closely with the younger ones to realign our collective values and ambitions and to create opportunities in our common vision of bearing the palm and unlocking their creative potentials,” he told the old students.
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