The June 4 purifying fire will blaze till a great and strong nation is built

But First let us set the records straight on:
What June 4 Is Not

June 4 was not against the wealthy or the privileged. There were many wealthy and privileged people who were not touched by the fury of June 4.
June 4 was not a mission of blind vengeance against people who did personal wrong things against us. Those who took advantage of the explosion and settled personal scores clearly fall short of its ideals and did not understand what the spirit of June was really about.
June 4 has never been about making all poor to become rich and every one equal. June 4 has never proclaimed
as its goal the banishment of poverty from the land. What June 4 has done is to
underscore the need for fairness, equity and the creation of
opportunities such that all who truly aspire and apply themselves
diligently and make a genuine endeavor can rise progressively out of the
doldrums and show that individual and societal progress can be
achieved by all classes of people regardless of birth, creed,
ethnicity, social status or so called "privileged education"

June 4 was not an event to banish and bring an end to corruption- not even Jesus the
master, or Mohammed the prophet has accomplished that feat

June 4 was not about them versus- or NDC versus NPP or even poor versus rich- there are some rich people who abhor greed, dishonesty
and there are some poor who are more dishonest and greedy than many
rich

June 4 is not about speaking out against wrong things done by opponents and be quiet when same wrong things have been done by our friends. Wrong is wrong regardless of who commits it.

June 4 was not a coup to punish people for making coups as being proclaimed today by Capt
Boakye Gyan aka “The man who went hiding under the bed of his wife”
June 4 was a cleansing process not unlike the cleansing of the temple of Jerusalem over two thousand years ago when Jesus cracked the whip, overthrew tables of greedy and dishonest merchants who had turned the house of God into a den of thieves.

What June 4 Is Really About
June 4 is about values and principles.
It is a reminder that principles must
be the core platform on which we build a Great and Strong nation- the
cause of right- the cause of justice, the cause of fairness and the
cause of brotherhood. The whip in the temple was about sacred values.
The house of my father not a den of thieves but a sanctuary of Sacred and Holy
Communion with God. Similarly, the seat of governmental power is not a place for thieves, liars,
greedy and selfish people but a place where honesty, simplicity,
nobility, sacrifice, truth and justice must be enthroned and glorified.

June 4 is about Sensitivity to the needs of the common man- Genuine sensitivity and not
cosmetic and hypocritical concerns- not the throwing of pittances to the poor and disadvantaged but the genuine realization that the thrust of leadership is the deployment of every ounce of energy to ensure that the needs of the masses are truly satisfied.

June 4 is about the power of the ordinary people- the knowledge that they are not stupid- that leaders underrate
the ordinary people at their own peril. This means that leaders must not live in their own self created “We are moving forward paradise” and claim that all is well when the ordinary folks are facing a whole different reality.

June 4 proves that when ordinary people find a leadership that is sensitive, honest and
genuinely determined to accomplish, they naturally rally round and
mobilize all their resources to make the dream a reality. June 4 shows that this kind of leadership evokes the needed patience, sympathy and understanding-
which are pivotal to our quest to chart a course of progress up the tough road ahead of us through the making of the
difficult choices we need to make if we are to bring about our dream of a truly great and strong
nation under God.

June 4 teaches us that it is not enough to lament about our problems. It is not enough to wait forever for some providential intervention. June 4 proves that we need to move beyond lamentations and “action-less prayer” to a point where we activate the energy, the passion and
the courage- the kinetic fuel that enables us to arise and seek answers and solutions to our problems.

June 4 is a testament to what we can achieve as a collective when we are properly inspired. June four is about what a determined people can accomplish and the huge
process of change that can be set in motion when we arise with a determination to confront our woes as a people.

June 4 is about Consistency- we must not hail it 1979 and proclaim it as
inevitable- (NPP's Historian and first prez candidate Prof Albert Adu Boahen)- and later pretend you were never for it. The people who applauded the blazing flame should not
become hypocrites years later and pretend they were against it from
the word go. Those who were punished by the purifying fire June 4 do not suddenly become saints simply because some of us have become
opponents of the human instruments used to punish the leaders who betrayed the trust of
the people. June 4 shows that what was wrong in 1979 remains wrong under President Kufuor and remains wrong President Mills.

June 4 reveals what a life of sacrifice and selflessness can do in terms of
unleashing the courage and the will to accomplish of the masses. That selflessness and sacrifice which was brought to the fore when Flt Lt Rawlings was arrested on May 15 could be summed in the following words-
“I would rather die trying to bring about a positive transformation
to my people than adopt the "if u cannot beat them, join them
approach"

June 4 therefore is a shining testament of the capacity to remain consistent to our ideals regardless of how high or how powerful we become- a
young flight lieutenant in 79, imbued by that noble spirit, inspired a nation to rise and put down a marker that is to remain the standard of leadership in
our country- a benchmark of accountability and integrity. Many other leaders started down the same path
and within a few months totally lost their way and became
more corrupt and wayward than those they sought to correct. But in the case of our flight lieutenant, nearly two decades in power, did not dim his passion
for truth, justice and integrity- his genuine devotion to the cause of the ordinary people. If the current NDC leadership needs an
inspiration to enable it walk that narrow road, we need not look too far.

The life and example of that young man who named his first child Ezanetor-
let the darkness end- and for 20 years and more continued
unerringly on that mission of banishing the socio economic darkness- must be our constant inspiration. On behalf of all our people, we can only salute that example.

June 4 epitomizes the spirit of positive defiance- the spirit that believes that no matter how gross the
darkness, no matter how desperate the situation, there is a seed
buried deep within us that if nurtured and encouraged, can, like the
prodigal son, arise out of the hopelessness and say, “Enough Is Enough-
I cannot take this situation anymore- I have the capacity to do
something to halt the decay and set into motion a process, gradual at
first but irreversible and unstoppable- a force that will ultimately bring about
the total transformation.

The “Yes We Can Spirit”.
One of the most enduring lessons of June 4 therefore is the fact that all great things are birthed out of an intense passion- a blazing, fiery determination to bring about a positive transformation. In our quest to transform our individual and national situation, June 4 shows that we will not succeed until that desire builds up into an irresistible, magnetic and unstoppable force that will bring about the crystallization of our dream.

Conclusion
It is not enough to commemorate June 4 once in a year. It is
important to internalize its values so that every single day we are
guided by its undying values and lessons.

Let us keep that pure flame burning ever so brightly. Let us continue
to salute the sacrifices of all those who made June 4 the positive
epoch making event that it was and let us never forget that to build a
nation that is great and strong, we cannot but cherish fearless
honesty. The kind of intense fearless honesty that empowers us to resist the rule of the internal and external oppressor with all our will and
all our might.

The words “Leave my men alone- I alone am responsible” were immortals words that will continue to be the standard of true leadership in our country.

Those words remind us of the master's teaching that “to save one's life we must be prepared to lose it”.

Those words embody Courage. They symbolize Honesty. They indicate
Readiness to put one's life down for the purpose of accomplishing a
great dream- a dream that will elevate and transform the lives of many.

May that spirit of courage, that sense
of nobility, that unparalleled commitment to truth and justice continue
to blaze in our hearts like a sun, until we bring about a truly great and strong nation anchored on accountability, integrity and true social justice.

Long live the spirit of June 4,
Long live the social democratic revolution it unleashed
Long live our homeland Ghana.

Credit: Fiifi Kwetey

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