WATCH UTTERANCES THAT INFLAME PASSIONS (PAGE 16)

THE Chairperson of the Western Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rev. W.N.B. Appiah, has called on politicians, the media and the general public to watch their utterances and behaviour as well as desist from making comments that will inflame passions.
“You will agree with me that in the run up to the December 2008 elections, our country witnessed a state of polarisation that is unprecedented in our fledgling democracy since 1992,” he said.
Rev. Appiah said one would have expected that after the elections which culminated in the swearing-in of a new executive and the legislature, Ghanaians would put behind them all acrimony, bitterness, insults, the accusations and counter accusations that went on during the political campaign but this had not been the case.
Rev. Appiah was speaking at the opening ceremony of the 22nd Presbytery session of the Western Presbytery at the Saint Kizito Retreat Centre at Apowa in the Ahanta West District of the Western Region.
The three-day programme, on the theme, “Put on the whole armour of God” provided a platform for the 75 delegates to critically assess their performance in line with the corporate goals and objectives.
The conference was also used to deliberate on key national issues, societal challenges and matters peculiar to church and state relationships.
He noted that people had rather taken entrenched positions according to their political leanings by insulting and accusing each other in both the electronic and print media.
“As a church, we are very much concerned about this kind of situation which if not checked can destroy our nation,” he explained.
Touching on the spate of road accidents, Rev. Appiah said in times past we associated road accidents with festivals where commercial drivers were believed to be rushing for passengers, adding that what was happening now was unprecedented.
He said it was unbelievable that through accidents alone about 300 people lost their lives between January and March this year, 80 per cent of them attributable human error.
“We as a church believe our country needs everyone alive and therefore call on all stakeholders, the National Road Safety Commission, the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA), the Police MTTU, Drivers Unions and passengers to do whatever they need to do with integrity to stop the carnage on our roads,” he stated.
“In the same way l call on all and urge members of the Christian community to continue to pray unceasingly to God to avert this national tragedy,” he added.
Concerning environmental sanitation, Rev. Appiah noted that the country was gradually losing its beauty as a result of wanton destruction of the forest, pollution of the water bodies and the indiscriminate littering of our streets all over the country.
Although, he said, there had been series of organised clean-up campaigns in both the past and present, gutters, drains and water bodies were still polluted with all kinds of refuse.
“We believe improving on environmental sanitation in the communities is the responsibility of all and l call on all stakeholders, the politicians, chiefs, church leaders and all opinion leaders to educate their people about the need to keep the environment clean, while at the same time the city and municipal councils and sanitation inspectors vigorously apply the bye-laws on defaulters,” he stressed.
Rev. Appiah also pointed out that conflicts, be it tribal, religious, land or chieftaincy, killed initiative and hindered development.
He explained that apart from the wanton loss of human life and property it affected productivity and retarded progress.
“The Presbyterian Church of Ghana is concerned with the numerous conflicts in the country, especially the northern part of Ghana and call on all the communities concerned to exercise maximum restraint,” he said, adding that they should therefore see reason to sit down and resolve all potential issues through dialogue.
The Western Regional Minister, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, said the government recognised the great strides religious organisations were making in the area of education, health and relief programmes.
Such efforts, he noted, had gone a long way to complement efforts of the government in the improvement in the living conditions of the people.
Mr Aidoo said it was the government’s determination to promote vibrant state-church partnership in evolving appropriate policies to address some of the socio-economic problems the country was currently facing.