Rawlings lauds peace ambassadors
Ghana’s former President, Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings, has commended former Black Stars’ captain, Stephen Appiah, and his former playmates, for using their status as football superstars to promote peace and unity in the country ahead of the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.
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The former president lauded the initiative of Ghana’s Peace Ambassador, Appiah, in organising two football matches christened, ‘Unity Match’, as part of his contribution towards maintaining an atmosphere of peace before, during and after the elections on November 7.
“You couldn’t have used your stature and popularity for a better purpose,” President Rawlings said last Tuesday, when Appiah, another Black Stars player, Augustine Arhinful, and former premiership stars, Sol Campbell, and George Boateng, visited him at his residence to officially invite him to the Unity Match slated for Kumasi and Accra on June 8 and 11 this year respectively.
Appiah said he had benefited tremendously from football fans in Ghana, hence his desire to use the power of football to unite the nation at such a crucial moment.
He also appealed for the support and counsel of President Rawlings as he began to serve in his new capacity as Ghana’s Peace Ambassador.
Campbell, a former England defender, said he wanted to be part of the effort to promote peaceful elections in Ghana, hence his decision to be part of the Unity Cup.
He said, “That is why I am here to be a part of a brighter future for Ghana by using my talent with Stephen as the head and George and friends around the world. Hopefully, it will ease tensions ahead of the elections.”
Also present at President Rawlings’s residence during the visit was entrepreneur, investment banker and corporate executive, Nana Fredua Agyeman Manuh, as well as two members of the National Democratic Congress Council of Elders, Alhaji Huudu Yahaya and Reverend Professor Richard Lawson.
Others present at the meeting were Ibrahim Sannie Darra, Communications Director of the Ghana Football Association, and Larry Opare-Otoo, Managing Director of Primeval Media, organisers of the two matches slated for June.
