State Of The Nation Address 2015- Religious Tolerance

Safe Democracy Ghana writes to congratulate you and your government for having to warn oppor­tunist and nation wreckers who attempt to manipulate and arouse religious sentimentality to desist from starting anything stupid and respect the tenet of the Nation's Constitution,

Safe Democracy Ghana is enthused you had made clear to all who desire to profess whatever religious doctrine could practice such without infringing or interfering in the right of other people's belief much as that should not lead to heightening and exacerbating dogma and extremism in our homeland Ghana.

Fundamental human right is a right in Ghana and not a privilege and everybody, a citizen and foreigner alike, male or female, young or adult whilst in Ghana has the right to behave within the confines of his right without suppressing the right of the other.

This is linked to the constitution Article 12 “(2) Every person in Ghana, whatever his race, place of origin, political opinion, colour, religion, creed or gender shall be entitled to the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the individual contained in this Chapter but subject to respect for the rights and freedoms of others and for the public interest.” Article 26” (1) Every person is entitled to enjoy, practice, profess, maintain and promote any culture, language, tradition or religion subject to the provisions of this Constitution.”

In our traditional and customary set up and the scope of our relations with non-citizens of our localities, it would be observed that we do not commit to discrimination. So the State of Ghana has no difficulty into integrating her communities. Cohabitation and intermarriages, socially living together around and within multi-ethnic enviroment is so prevalent in our localities such that there is possibly nonexistent a particular tribe in Ghana that has not a mixture of other ethnic groupings within it or could there exist a township without a Zongo, mostly occupied by non indigenes of that particular locality. This is imbued in our constitution Article 35”(5) The State shall actively promote the integration of the peoples of Ghana and prohibit discrimination and prejudice on the grounds of place of origin, circumstances of birth, ethnic origin, gender or religion, creed or other beliefs.”

Though our politicians have sought to create divisive manners in our political and social life by tagging others to be either NDCs or NPPs with impulsive ethnic connection, Safe Democracy Ghana has incessantly objected to that phenomenon and call for detraction of power centeredness on the heels of Political Party Sponsored Government to Political Party Government by creating a Ceremonial President in the person of the President of the National House of Chiefs, a non-partisan Second Chamber Parliament to be made up of percentage of Traditional Authorities(debarred to participate in active politics), and representative each from expert organizations in the Republic of Ghana who shall function as the United States Senate or the House of Lords in the United Kingdom.

Article “21(1) “-(c) freedom to practice any religion and to manifest such practice;” is engraved in the bosom of mother Ghana and no religious sect, whatever, should think otherwise against the tenets of our constitution; and consider preaching extremism in the land of Freedom and Justice.

Article 21(1) (e) freedom of association, which shall include freedom to form or join trade unions or other associations, national or international, for the protection of their interest” is also guaranteed and that the right to manifest one's religious doctrine must not infringe on the right of the other to practice their views. Keep to your faith and allow others to keep to their faith for peace and harmony to prevail in the land where “Freedom” is a household name.

Article 17(1, 2, and 3) provides that;
a) All persons shall be equal before the law.

b) A person shall not be discriminated against on grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnic origin, religion, creed or social or economic status.

c) For the purposes of this article, "discriminate" means to give different treatment to different persons attributable only or mainly to their respective descriptions by race, place of origin, political opinions, colour, gender, occupation, religion or creed, whereby persons of one description are subjected to disabilities or restrictions to which persons of another description are not made subject or are granted privileges or advantages which are not granted to persons of another description.”

In doing so, the Constitution 1992 Article 41(b, c, d) urges that “The exercise and enjoyment of rights and freedoms is inseparable from the performance of duties and obligations, and accordingly, it shall be the duty of every citizen –

(b) To uphold and defend this Constitution and the law;

(c) To foster national unity and live in harmony with others;

(d) To respect the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of others, and generally to refrain from doing acts detrimental to the welfare of other persons;

Much as the constitution of Ghana urges harmony with each others, Safe Democracy Ghana urges that, tolerance is the pinnacle code of every successful institution be it political or the indigenous idol worshipping religion, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Baha'ism, Druze or Zoroastrianism and that the entire nation shall prosper if we admit to loving all and subscribe to hating none from among ourselves as a nation and our neighbours shall intrinsically copy from us for peaceful coexistence of human race on earth.

“Love for All, hatred for None” is the cornerstone for building united strong nation where all shall do onto others, what they wish others do unto them and thereby people in position shall refrain from temptation in treating others with impunity and branding them as inferiors whilst noting that all have a role to play in the nation building. People in public service shall render services to those in need of the services without considering to take more than the official fee destined for the services rendered and people in supervisory role shall act according to the dictum of positions for which they were hired and punish defaulters according to the law of the land to deter others from engaging into the sneaky rot that could bring the armour of the nation down. We must understand that destiny has made us all a family of one living within the same compound house. Together we swim and together we sink if we default into keeping safe the lifeline of success- tolerance.

Safe Democracy Ghana would also want the people of Ghana to be very wary of religious fanatics who associate themselves with occurrences in the Middle East and preach dogmas that leads to nothing more than destruction of human race for which it is to contract for salvation into the kingdom of God. Take Notice, the struggle in the Middle East is nothing more than economic warfare, the right to land occupation which has been long overdue in the Republic of Ghana when Nananom led the battles for land acquisitions. Associated with ethnicity and tribalism and religions being used as convenient tool to promote fallacious agenda, some of the inhabitants of the Middle East have refused to acknowledge what Nananom have done- learn to forgive for peaceful coexistence and smoke peace pipe.

The people of Ghana have gotten our land secured and let us not pry anything untoward to invite the attention of the crusaders including the likes of bokoharams. The people of Ghana have long advice the world against human right abuses and called on all to accentuate to the doctrine of Abrahamic or Semitic faith that “love thy neighbour as thyself” and adhere to Article 41 (g) to contribute to the well-being of the community where that citizen lives (i) to co-operate with lawful agencies in the maintenance of law and order; (k) to protect and safeguard the environment. (Article 41g,i &k 1992 constitution).

The constitution 1992 detest disunity such that, in the preamble to the Articles of the constitution and in subsequent Articles towards the creation of State institutions, it has made clear how much she abhors disunity and endures in the promotion of unity and under Article “35 (6) “(6) Towards the achievement of the objectives stated in clause (5) of this article, the State shall take appropriate measures to - (a) foster a spirit of loyalty to Ghana that overrides sectional, ethnic and other loyalties;”

Article “35 (5) The State shall actively promote the integration of the peoples of Ghana and prohibit discrimination and prejudice on the grounds of place of origin, circumstances of birth, ethnic origin, gender or religion, creed or other beliefs.”

Prospective Political Parties are debarred and disqualified if they carry any emblem that seeks to denote sectional, regional or religious insignia. Article 55(7) (c) provides that “For purposes of registration, a prospective political party shall furnish the electoral commission with a copy of its constitution and the names and addresses of its national officers: and shall satisfy the commission that - (c) the parties name, emblem, colour, motto or any other symbol has no ethnic, regional, religious or other sectional connotations or gives the appearance that it activities are confined only to a part of Ghana.” And membership to political parties is also guided by the Constitutional provisions Article 55(4) “Every political party shall have a national character, and membership shall not be based on ethnic, religious, regional or other sectional divisions.”

Article 55(7) of the constitution 1992 is better explained in section 3 of Act 574 (2000) Prohibition of ethnic or religious parties and it states inter alia “(1) No political party shall be formed (a) on ethnic, gender, religious, regional, professional or other sectional divisions; or (b) which uses words, slogans or symbols which could arouse ethnic, gender, religious, regional, professional or other sectional divisions. (2) For the purpose of subsection (1), a political party is formed on ethnic, gender, religious, regional, professional or other sectional divisions if its membership or leadership is restricted to members of any particular community, region, ethnic group, gender, religious faith or profession, or if its structure and mode of operation are not national in character.

Politics and Religion conjoined and meant to create peace for human grace and progress has been capitalised and manipulated by voracious and insatiable crooks. In the ambit of sheer greediness they have plunged the world into miseries using politics as bait.

These are Safe Democracy Ghana's fears and the fears of all those who have witnessed atrocities committed by religious yobbo and Safe Democracy Ghana is most grateful to the framers of the constitution on this notion and the Parliament of Ghana 2000 who have realized the atrocious dim on politico-religious syndrome and enacted laws that shall not favour or entertain such ruin in Ghana.

God bless our homeland Ghana.
Munir Saani
Executive Secretary
Safe Democracy Ghana.
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