More psychiatric hospitals needed in Ghana

It is believed that everyone is susceptible to mental illness, and that any person can slip into madness at any given point in time. The President of the American Psychological Association, Dr. Philip G. Zimbardo thinks all it may take to trigger the process is a special kind of blow to one's self-image to push someone over the edge of sanity.

When you hear a musician shouting, "I dey mad oh, I dey go crazy", and another one sing, "Ole seka ni wo ye" meaning do you know how mad we are? And a third person hitting the side of his head with a clinched fist, and shouting, "Abodam" (madness); then, no one should tell you that things are knocking things, and that "they are slipping coming".

These are some of the reasons why I want to applaud President John Dramani Mahama for promising two brand new psychiatric hospitals sometime ago.

Coming back to the issue of mental illness, some common symptoms of the disorder are delusions, characterised with seeing visions and hearing voices. That is not to say it is wrong for people to see visions; please don't get me wrong. I'm a Christian, and I believe in visions and prophesies.

Now, coming back to my point, I'm not against prophesies. There are genuine pastors in this country who are doing awesomely well. My pastor for example is one of the greatest gifts to our generation; the grace upon his life is unimaginable. He can see and reveal deep spiritual matters, but he says he is not a prophet. Good beads do not rattle indeed.

Unfortunately, some "men of God" are becoming a disgrace to Christianity. When some of them gave fake prophesies about matches involving the Black Stars during the AFCON not too long ago, I said to myself, abakade, they are slipping coming.

But as soon as I heard some of them saying that they have the power to determine who becomes the next president of the Republic of Ghana, I cringed and said to myself, sosket! Things are knocking things!

Anthony Obeng Afrane