Mahama confesses: It’s a stressful job

Ghana president John Dramani Mahama has made a clean breast before an Assemblies of God congregation in the USA, that his job is eating him up.

However, President Mahama believes that despite the storm – an ailing economy, lack of jobs, labour agitations and erratic power supply among others – the West African nation will sail through with time.

“It's a very stressful job, but knowing that God guides your steps, and you have a family like the Assemblies of God behind you really is a comfort,” Mahama, who has been serving as the young oil-producing country’s leader since January 2013, admitted at the Assemblies of God Centennial celebration in Springfield.

The centennial celebration coincided with the first U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, which the Ghanaian leader attended in Washington D.C., this week.

Mahama, now a member of the Assemblies of God headquartered in Springfield, said his faith gives him “the confidence to go forward.”

He thanked the Assemblies of God for sending missionaries and establishing churches in Ghana.

Mahama said the Assemblies of God is one of the largest Christian churches in Ghana, and it continues to grow. The Assemblies of God has over 67 million adherents and over 17 million live in Africa.

“I liken it to the biological process of seed dispersal,” he said. “We have junior pastors who move off and found new churches and bring in more converts to the church.”

He said not only has the church affected the country spiritually, but he cited its humanitarian work in poverty interventions, health care and education.

Mahama also touched on what he called a historic meeting in Washington.

“If we come away from this summit understanding each other better it will be a good outcome, and I guess that the last three days in Washington have made us understand each other better, Americans and Africans,” he said.

Speaking about the deadly Ebola virus that has killed nearly a 1,000 people, Mahama noted: “We are prepared, and indeed we've been working on our national response actively.”