Wesley Girls Brouhaha: No One or Law is Above the Dictates of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana

The Bible in Book of Luke 19:27 indicates how Jesus Christ instructed those who didn’t accept him as their King to be slain. Of course, the Bible is full of parables and this biblical genocidal statement could have been on of them.

However, perhaps, this same concept was what inspired the Crusaders to attempt to butcher many societies into accepting Christianity.

But the Reformation, the Renaissance, Modernity, and the Secularization project of Europe had salvaged the situation and created intellectual growth, the rise of humanism anchored in religious tolerance and freedom.

According to John L. Esposito in his “Rethinking Islam and Secularism” (1998), “Modernity” means the disconnection between the present and the past; Renaissance means “rebirth”; Secularization means separation of the Church and the State; and he Reformation is the creation of Protestantism.

Thankfully, this was the civilization the European colonizers exported and brought to Africa: Modernity, Renaissance, Secularism, and the ability to protest against going back tho the evil past of Church’s command over the State.

Nonetheless, the leopard, it is said, has never shed off all its spots. The belligerent and intolerant nature of the faith of Christianity which led to the ideologies of Renaissance,  Reformation and Secularization, continues to bombard humanity every now an then in most of Europe-centric institutions dotted around the world. Including mission schools which were founded by European Christian Missionaries.

Mind you, religious tolerance and freedom is still a major issue in Europe itself despite secularization and Renaissance.

Consequently, many Europeans and their manifestations like some mission schools, freedom of religion to them means, the freedom to practice their faith and the freedom of everyone else not to practice theirs.

I have read with keen interest the recent observations and arguments of many Ghanaians who are proponents of Mission schools and their tenets and ethos. The recent one is what the President of the University Teachers' Association of Ghana (UTAG) has said, which I believe is the centrality of the issue at hand.

The President has observed that non-Christian students who can’t observe school rules and regulations in mission schools, should stay away. Indicating that non-Christian students should not go to mission schools at all. And probably, for those who are already in mission schools should leave if they don’t want to be forced to worship.

Succinctly, the  UTAG President is adducing that the rules and regulations ought not to be breached by anyone, and for them to be upheld, those who do not want to be violated in their enforcement should either stay away or leave the mission schools. Period.

What an excellent and sagacious argument!

However, the UTAG President seemed not to see beyond the mission schools with this pugnacious observation and argument. Thus, if that should be the case then it is only fair that mission schools and their operators to also stay away from Ghana’s public educational sector or completely vacate the country because of the “rules and regulations” of Ghana which is the Constitution of the Republic that must also be upheld.

And the Constitution of Ghana regulates that;

1. No law or rules and regulations should override nor contradict the Constitution.

2. No one is above the law.

3. Every Ghanaian should have the right to freedom of religion and conscience.

Subject to the above provisions or rules and regulations governing the conduct and affairs of citizens of Ghana, no entity or individual has the right to go against them just as mission schools think of their rules and regulations. And if mission schools feel they can’t abide by these rules and regulations of Ghana, like it is argued, it is only fair that they must stay aside as far as public education is concerned – and go on privatization. Or, they must completely vamoose the country which law they can't obey if people must leave their schools for not obeying their laws. The mission schools must carry their rules and regulations that seek to override the "rules and regulations" of the country out of Ghana. Period.

Where did Methodism come from? Let it go back there.

I have also chanced upon what many may refer to as most unlettered and very legally irresponsible argument by the Attorney General which has recently been re-echoed by the Chairman of the National Peace Council, Most Rev. Emmanuel Kofi Fianu. And I believe such argument must be refuted in the face of the law. It neither carries legal weight nor carries responsible social capital.

In fact, it is most painful and distressing that such myopic arguments come from our very best and most learned individuals.

The Attorney General and the Most Reverend Emmanuel Kofi Fianu have argued, that because state funding is not equated to state ownership, individual mission schools have the right to debar their fellow citizens from practicing their religion within the environs of what is supposed to be a public space or environment.

Note that every school whether government-owned, funded or totally private, has no right whatsoever to prohibit any citizens their right to worship or be forced to worship against their conscience.

Is the Attorney General suggesting that if his wife or child decides to be a Buddhist or a Muslim, he has the right to prevent her or him from observing her or his prayer? In a public space?

Educational institutions are public spaces not individual or private spaces. In fact, even if it is your space, you can only prevent people of other faiths from practicing in your space but you have no right whatsoever to force them to practice your religion simply because it's your space.

For example, the Attorney General could prevent his converted son from observing his rituals in his room or house. But if the son decides to rent the house or room and the Attorney General accepts the fee, he has no right anymore to prevent his son or anyone of same religion to observe their rituals in the house. Let alone making a rule to force them to worship his way because they are living in his space which is rented: public space.

Every academic environment is a public space like the hospital, prison yard, or stadium, that belongs to the public, especially if it is opened to the general public to accommodate every citizen of different walk of life. In such a space, no one has the right to prevent or coerce others to worship against their conscience.

Can Ghana Armed Forces, at any Barracks, make any rules and regulations that will debar some religious group from practicing religions the GAF doesn’t want?

The Methodist Church (Ghana) has hospitals as well. Would they ever suggest individuals who do not pray like them should either stay away from their hospitals or pray like them if Non-Christian or even Non-Methodist members need treatment in their hospitals?

The question is, did they build the hospitals for the public or for only those who profess their doctrine? What about the schools? Was Wesley Girls established for education of Ghanaians or for only Methodist members or Christians?

The reality is that if the Methodist Church would never want patients to worship like them before seeking treatment in their hospitals, they should not ask students to worship their way before getting PUBLIC education in their schools.

The point I am hammering home here is that, despite the fact that the State has not completely taken over mission schools, does not give them the right to take away the religious freedom of their non-Christian students and fellow citizens.

What is most worrying is the fact that, despite these schools being the best in the country which should have been champions of religious harmony, secularism, ethical standards, constitutionalism, democracy, open-mindedness, and tolerance, they are rather the number one demoters of the above, and consistently promoting this most primitive and colonial mentality.

The question is, what do they seek to achieve for this mentality when they know better that forcing someone to worship their way, will not necessarily make them embrace that faith willingly? Are they just brewing trouble?

Because, no Christian parents whose children are attending Muslim mission schools like Real Amass, will ever be happy about their wards being forced to the Mosque, to fast or wear Hijab. Should Muslim mission schools also decide to do the same and tell Christian students to obey or leave? Would that be commonsensical?

What would be the essence of the Constitution then and the law courts if anybody can decide to make rules and regulations to usurp the powers of the Constitution? Are mission schools suggesting they are above the law? Education providers? And what sort of education and pedagogical tradition is that which teaches breach of country’s laws?

What about morality and ethics? Doesn’t the Bible teach Christians to “do unto others as they want them do unto them”?  Why then would any devoted, ethical, moral, peace-loving level-headed Christian decides to go against this Golden Principle?

Is there something fishy? Do mission schools have some agenda of seditious behavior in the country?

Is this a deliberate attempt to provoke Non-Christian parents whose children attend mission schools even if that should mean a declaration of war by operators of mission schools on their ethical values, devotion, the Constitution, and just simple commonsense?

It appears none of the above. What then is it?

Methinks the problem really has to do with some sort of inferiority complex and lack of confidence in the survival of the Christian faith when exposed to other religions like Islam. What Thomas Huntington called the Clash of Civilization. When there's a clash of values or religions, or civilizations, the weaker and less influential ones turn to use force and coercion to bamboozle unsuspecting victims.

And, indeed, according to Thomas Prasch, in his “Which God for Africa”, the purpose for the establishment of mission schools was actually to counter other religions and Islam was the primary target in Africa.

On closer analysis and examination, Ty Thompson believes the mission of mission schools or missionaries was not even about spreading the Word and the Christian faith. Opportunistic reasons such as exploitation of Africa and getting rid of any potential rival which Islam was undisputed rival number one, was what informed the use of religion to exploit Africans. Because the European scholars defined religion as "the opium of the masses".

This then explains why the religious beliefs and principles become nothing and valueless when there’s a clash between the real interests for Christianization and the actual Christian values. Partly, it is what we are witnessing before our eyes today when Christian nations that were once spreading the religion which prohibits homosexuality now advocates it.

Against their own values and ethos of Christianity. Because it is not about the Christian religion. There’s an agenda.

A reason why, despite the Christian faith and its values, the colonizers exploited Africans and looted their resources and continue to loot till day through neocolonialism.

The question now is, what do Christian mission schools seek to also achieve for going against basic ethical standards of obeying a country’s Constitution; for going against upholding a pact they had signed with government of Ghana to defrock; for going against their own Golden Principle to do unto others as they want  others do unto them?

Why can't Christian mission schools embrace other cultures in their midst as educated individuals in the 21st century in a democratic dispensation?

Do the mission schools fear Islam's influence that much? Is the Islamic religion so influential, beautiful, and convincing, such that when allowed to be practiced in mission schools, all Christian students will accept Islam?

Or what is the agenda of mission schools?

Are they preparing for another colonization of Ghana and looting? Why do they still remain in this path of colonialism?

But  whether these adamant and recalcitrant Mission schools have seditious agenda to destabilize the country or not with this unconstitutional mentality, government must force them into privatization and ceases to assist them with public funding.

They must be removed from the Ghanaian public educational  sector completely including from the computerized school selection and placement system, the National Maths and Science Quizz, and other public events reserved for Ghanaian public schools that are willing to obey the mother law of Ghana.

Period.