National prayers to alleviate national pains?

Ghana is a very funny country to live in. It is a nation where any smart guy can play on the psychology of a greater majority of us and get away with it.

Fifty-three years after independence, our thought pattern seems to be the same among majority of us, the advent of information technology notwithstanding.

Oh yes, else how can people fall victim to 419 operatives who demand bank accounts from people they had never met, with the promise that huge sums of monies were going to be deposited in those accounts, and right thinking Ghanaians fall for it?

The only reason one can assign to this kind of behaviour is the fact that the victim himself is a crook who lives by crooked means or a lazy drone who wants to reap where no ploughing, planting and harvesting has been undertaken. It looks as if many of us are like that.

To extend this to the religious realm, many of us Ghanaians, in our bid to do the bidding of our creator, have become victims of false prophets and modern day miracle performers.

Yes, these miracle performers can secure visas for eager travellers when they do not work in any foreign embassy in this country. In fact, they do not even know the visa application requirements of the embassies.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with one practicing a faith, but to become a slave to one's faith is very dangerous to one's own development and the national development as a whole.

Ghana, happily, is a secular society where the Constitution of the Republic guarantees freedom of worship and association provided, the practice of one's worship and the association do not infringe on the fundamental freedoms of individual citizens of this country.

Indeed, a lot of such infringements take place on a daily basis through noise-making in the name of worship, which technically and legally could be a nuisance to other people. But we allow them to go for fear of being branded a 'Buddhist' or devil.

Dear reader, today I am going to be my devil best and be prepared to be welcomed to the bosom of Satan, wherever he might be. What is President Atta Mills taking this nation through?

It is good to have a President who is religious and morally upright in terms of his principles, they can combine effectively with the laws of the country for good governance. But it must be said and clearly so that no single individual in this country has the right to impose his or her religious beliefs on the rest of us as a people.

Nobody can turn this country into Christian or Islamic nation, imploring everybody to, by all means, be a part of a particular faith.

Egya Atta had on assumption of office declared that he wished he could turn the whole of this country into one prayer camp.

Who as the lead Pastor? T.B. Joshua? Egya Atta should be reminded that he was voted into office to use the resources of this country, both human and natural to provide comfort and meaningful livelihood to Ghanaians.

He was not elected to take us through the Bible neither should he think that we do not know the Bible, that we are so primitive that it is only the word of God that can change us and make the better Ghana he promised a reality for us.

Nations that have developed and improved the lives of majority of its citizens did not turn their nations into prayer camps; neither did they hold national prayers to improve their situations.

The leadership exhibited a clear knowledge of the needs of the people, assessed the opportunities available to them, looked at the threats and fashioned out programmes and policies that harnessed their resources, brought everyone on board and moved forward. You can add the right direction, even though Egya Atta has lost the direction, let alone being right.

Egya Atta should give Ghanaians a single example of a nation which has progressed through national prayers. Ask your Vice President, whether the people of South Korea from whom we want shelter over our heads got the money they are going to give us through national prayers.

How many Chinese are Christians? Less than 2% of the world's most populous nation may be classified as Christians, yet they are ruling the world today, economically.

The Indians are gradually reducing the poverty levels of their populace; they are not Christians and they do not hold national prayer days.

Even the Americans who say 'In God we trust' believe more in hard work and discipline than the trust they have in God.

Egya Atta, the country is not being productive enough; indiscipline has taken control under your nose. Yes, your foot or hand soldiers who are moving from one public office to the other driving away Ghanaians who have been offered legitimate employment by the state, using lethal weapons in their bestial acts, require the full force of the laws of the land and not national prayers.

In any case, for what reason was the national prayers held? To beg God to forgive your government for the lies and the false promises you made to the good people of this country, many of them you say you did not make, or to take us away from occultism or what?

National prayers can not solve the water problems facing this country, national prayers, even when held daily, can not bring petroleum products to this country, it can not solve the shortage of liquefied petroleum gas, it can not solve the unemployment that afflicts the youth of this country.

It is only the lazy in mind, thought and deed who thinks there is a God some where who will solve his or her problems without any serious efforts on his or her own. It does not happen any where in the world.

Egya Atta, check, the poorest nations in the world are the most religious. Why, is God not listening to them? It is those who work very hard and are disciplined in mind and deed who are living in the image of God, because it is not the wish of God that people lack simple and basic needs like water.

So if in the 21st century, under the pious and angelic Atta Mills, water is a precious commodity available to only those who can afford, then he has not lived up to the expectation of God.

Egya Atta told us the last time that what he proposed was disposed by God. So what were the national prayers meant to achieve if God has rejected your proposals for this country?

Have you sat down to amend or rewrite your proposals for God's approval? If not, why did you drag all of us before Him for your rejected proposals?

Very soon, we will be entering the rainy season, and any forward looking government should by now spend money desilting the choked drains in our cities and towns so that when the rains come, they will not cause serious havoc.

Egya Atta and his team B people will sit down for the rains to flood the nation, cause the loss of lives and property, and the next moment gather us to the Independence Square for national prayers.

Who born dog? Do you think the less than 25 million Ghanaians are more special than over a billion Chinese who even do not worship God but have prospered?

Yes, they do not worship God, but when the floods come and kill us because of our inaction or over reliance on the aged God, the Chinese would be godly enough to bring us relief items to mitigate our suffering.

And that is when we will see who is more godly, the nation with visionless leadership who spends precious time praying and making the children of God hungry and deprived or that nation which knows the needs of God's people and works not only to provide them but also extends a helping hand to those who are in need because they do not plan.

Egya Atta must be up and doing. If prayers would solve our problems, stop the killer taxes and let us all pray for money from God to solve our problems. If you are incapable of solving our problems, do not make religion an opium for us. We are wiser than that.

And what is this noise about the Singapore and the number of journalists who have been sent by government to observe what? Don't waste my time, as it is said in Graphic Newsroom, courtesy Wofa Yaw.

As far back as 1999, the same GNPC, under Tsatsu Tsikata, sent a number of us to Genoa in Italy to 'inspect' the Osagyefo Badge which is now in the Western Region.

When we came back and I did a report on it, some NDC guys who had problem with Tsatsu rubbished his efforts. Why are they glorifying the visit to Singapore as if it is the first time it has happened? Anyway, some of them were too young to have known this.

Credit: Kwesi Biney/Daily Guide