Mahama condemns insults during public discourse

Source: Daily Graphic Ghana  -  President John Dramani Mahama has spoken out against the insults that have taken over a better part of public discourse in the country and urged religious organisations to devote time to fight them.

He said the impunity with which some people disrespected and rained insults on their leaders and the elderly was unGhanaian and expressed concern that that was happening in a country considered the most religious in the world....

President Mahama stated this when he joined the Saviour Church of Ghana at its annual convention at its headquarters at Osiem in the Eastern Region last Saturday.

The congregation, in their thousands, used the convention, which marked the 91st anniversary of the establishment of the church, to, among other things, pray for the prosperity of the nation.

Mr Mahama asked Christians to go beyond their individual religious beliefs and demonstrate true love and affection for others, especially the needy.

“The church today is not just for spiritual development; the material aspect is also important,” he said, and commended the Saviour Church of Ghana for playing a leading role in that.

He stated that what made a good Christian was not just the beliefs but attitudes.

The President defended his government’s development record and struck a confident tone of overcoming the challenges that confronted it in the management of the nation.

He said the power challenges that had been the major concern of the government and the people were being worked on and that the future looked bright.

Ghana, he said, was not retrogressing but progressing.

Mr Mahama also said the cocoa industry was receiving serious attention from the government to make cocoa farming even more attractive to the youth.

Cocoa, he said, was still the backbone of the economy and expressed the hope that with favourable rainfall this year, production could hit one million tonnes or close to that.

He noted the Saviour Church’s tremendous contribution to national development, especially in the areas of agriculture, education and health delivery.

In his sermon, the General Overseer of the church, Opanin Abraham Adusei, said the church took great interest in the spiritual and material development mix and would never depart from that path.

The Saviour Church currently has cocoa, orange and cashew farms, in addition to schools and health facilities.

Quoting extensively from the Scriptures, Opanin Adusei said a Christian who was corrupt could not claim to be a true follower of Christ.

He said people who wanted the downfall of the government by committing all manner of crimes just to make the government unpopular must know that they were destroying their own nation.

Such people, he said, must change from their evil ways because their political parties could not win power through those negative acts.

Generally, he said, the country was moving forward under the leadership of Mr Mahama, but what was worrying was the power crisis.