Pastor calls for peace and unity in new regions

Reverend Emmanuel Antwi-Tumfuor, the National Director of Evangelism, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church at the Elorm Parish at Bankoe in the Volta Region, has urged the chiefs and people in the new regions to work in unity to decide on the regional capitals peacefully.

'They need to preserve the peace to accelerate the development they yearn for in their new jurisdictions. Our prayer for our brothers and sisters in the new regions is that, the unity of purpose with which they petitioned government for a new region should guide them in their choice of a new capital to move forward', he added.

Rev Antwi-Tumfuor in his New Year message copied to the Ghana News Agency, call on government to pay attention to bridging the infrastructure development gap across the country.

He said it is no secret that one fundamental issue which came up prompting the calls for the creation of new region was the yawning infrastructure gap, coupled with inadequate provision of essential services in most parts of our dear country.

'We hope government will resource the local governance structure to ensure that decentralization is felt at the grass root with the basic necessities of life provided to enhance the qualitative living standard of all Ghanaians'.

Touching on better opportunities for the country, Rev Antwi-Tumfuor said authorities must ensure that the socio-economic needs of the citizenry are met, so that God's message of hope would be more meaningful to them.

He said it behooves on all and sundry to advance in its development journey and a duty to contribute in various ways to make the country better to help stem the tide of young people who risk their lives embarking on hazardous trips through the desert and turbulent oceans to go abroad for better opportunities.

Rev Antwi-Tumfuor urged Christian leaders to work hard for the church to be seen always as a good moral conscience of society.

'It is sad to see on both mainstream and social media, videos of prayer and healing sessions of some churches, where in the name of deliverance and exorcising evil spirit, worshippers are abused physically with some suffering body harm. It is a worrying trend that is giving a bad name to Christendom'.

He said the media pluralism has made the media space vibrant by shedding light on corruption cases, human right abuses, poor road infrastructure, ill-equipped schools and hospitals, unemployment challenges, streetism, child-labour among others.

Rev Antwi-Tumfuor said the country need to encourage the media to produce quality reports, hence, any law that will enhance the activities of media practitioners deserves priority attention.

He urged Ghanaians to do due diligence before getting into any investment arrangement or dealing with investment entities to avoid any uncertainty in future.

Rev Antwi-Tumfuor said the issue of warnings of regulatory institutions to Ghanaians to be wary of investment entities that promise to pay mouth-watering returns on any investment must not be taken for granted.

Touching on lifting of ban on small-scale mining and safeguarding the environment, the Rev Minister urged workers engaged in small-scale mining to see the lifting of the ban as another opportunity to respect the laws on mining and avoid practices like conniving with foreigners to get involved in small-scale mining and using prohibited mining equipment.

---GNA