Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle, who is the Catholic Archbishop for Cape Coast, gave this admonition to them during the requiem mass organized in memory of their father, Jerry Rawlings, in Accra.
He also asked them to be conscious now, more than ever, in eschewing the positive virtues of their father, as a way of bringing him back to life in them.
“At this juncture, let me dare address you the young ones here present. More especially, if I may Zanetor, Yaa Asantewa, Amina, and Kimathi: Jerry, your dear father, is no more. You will miss him greatly because only you knew him differently from all other persons here.
“My dear Zanetor, my dear Yaa Asantewa, my dear Amina, my dear Kimathi, take good care of your mom. Your father has left her in your care but now is the time to bring your father back to life by walking in the best of his shoes. You only can best do this by nurturing the best of his values,” he told them.
He added that as a way of cementing the legacies of the former president, people should personally work at living by the tenets that Rawlings worked so hard to build and for what he was known for in the areas of probity, transparency, and accountability.
Many of us, though convinced about the need for transparency, probity, and accountability, in human discourse and in political intercourse, we could not espouse and appreciate the path Jerry took to execute his program for good governance.
“Nevertheless, my deepest conviction is that only God will be the best judge on Jerry on the depth and the genuineness of his conviction and his faith in God. Now is the time to look with different and unbiased eyes, at his personal crusade of probity, transparency, and accountability. Let us take an oath today, in the presence of God, to work conscientiously to establish these virtues of probity and accountability and transparency in our own individual lives and in the social and political life and in the service of our country Ghana,” he concluded.
Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings and the late former president knew each other for more than six decades and were together, blessed with four children.
Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle preached at the Requiem Mass for Rawlings