Election 2020 should not break us – Pastor

The Most Reverend Dr Paul Kwabena Boafo, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, Ghana, has called on all political leaders to go about the 2020 election campaign with circumspection to safeguard the peace of the nation.

He said they should also avoid politics of insults and attacks on personalities and rather do campaigns that address issues, which would bring development to all Ghanaians.

He urged the politicians to speak peace as they go round their campaigns and “not talk as if we want to create conflict, war and tensions in the communities”.

“Whoever mounts a political platform should be guided that Ghana is at stake, and we should ensure that peace continues to reign”, Rev Boafo, who is also the Chairman of the Christian Council of Ghana, said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency.

He said Ghanaians are looking for political leaders who have them at heart and who were not seeking their own interest, but seeking the welfare of the general public.

“So that whatever campaign promises they put forth, they should ensure that they can deliver because we have had enough of the vain promises and at the end of the day we cannot make head and tail of the promises.

Rev Boafo said political manifestos should therefore, contain things that were deliverable so Ghanaians would be happy for it.

He said whoever wins the election should look at development for all shades of people and not only a section of Ghanaians, but looking at Ghana as a whole.

According to Rev Boafo, the upcoming elections was a platform that would help consolidate the gains of the nation in the political dispensation “we have had over the years”.

“It is another opportunity that Ghanaians have, and so political leaders and their teeming followers and all who are to vote must ensure that we are going in for peace and we can only achieve this when we learn to be peacemakers and ready to forgive each other.

He urged the Electoral Commission (EC) to also endeavour to conduct the general elections in a way that would not create doubt from any quarters.

He asked the EC “to do the work with all of us, especially all the political parties, to achieve the ultimate so that at the end of the elections, we can all walk on our streets peacefully.”

Rev Boafo prayed that the elections would be peaceful and urged all to allow God to lead the nation in the New Year.