The Omanhene of Asante Juaben Traditional Area in the Ashanti Region, Nana Dr Appiagyei Dankawoso I, has been inducted into office as the President-General of the West Africa Nobles Forum (WANF).
WANF is a non-governmental group of more than 3,000 eminent personalities from various fields of work across the sub-region, set up in 2003, to promote integrity and accountability as well as drive socio-economic integration.
Nana Dankawoso, the immediate past President of the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, takes over from Dr Paul Fynn, Chancellor of Wisconsin International University College, and would lead the Forum for five years.
At the 32nd West Africa Nobles Congress/Awards in Accra on Friday, he was sworn into office by a retired Court of Appeal Judge and WANF member, Justice Isaac Duose, who, as part of the investiture, decorated the traditional ruler with a medal and handed him a two-edged sword as his symbols of office.
The ceremony also saw the new President-General induct into WANF, 11 new members, including the Director General of Social Security and National Insurance Trust, John Ofori-Tenkorang; the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, Yofi Grant, and the Acting Controller and Accountant-General, Kwasi Kwaning-Bosompem.
About 15 members of the group were also honoured for their exemplary service in their active years.
In this acceptance speech, Nana Dankawoso said integrity which is the hallmark of the Forum, meant that one should be honest, have strong moral principles and do the right thing all the time, whether in public or private.
“The product of integrity is honesty, accountability, humility, persistency and excellence. Any person who ascends to a leadership position through dishonesty has no future in that position.
“Hard work can take us to the leadership position but it is our integrity that will make us stay there. Success will come and go but integrity is forever,” he said, and advised businessmen and politicians to keep high standards of integrity.
Nana Dankawoso thanked his predecessors and leading members of the Forum for pursuing high ethical principles which, in his view, would eventually help rid society of self-centeredness and ethnocentrism.
In a speech read on behalf of Dr Fynn, the Immediate Past President-General, Justice Duose, implored members to support the New President -General to grow the Forum just as they helped increase membership from 1,500 to over 3,000 within Dr Fynn’s 10-year period in office.
He said although the COVID-19 pandemic had affected businesses of members, an all-hands-on deck approach, coupled with their desire to promote integrity, would help sustain the activities of WANF.
The Executive director of WANF, Dr Dee Otibu -Asare, said the Forum, since its inception, had been championing integrity through public engagements including conferences and other events and would continue to do so to raise a generation of integrity.
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