Political parties urged to be tolerant during campaign

Accra, Feb. 7, GNA- The General Overseer of the Divine Healer's Church, the Reverend Amaziah Aflah Armah, at the weekend called on political parties to ensure a peaceful election in December this year by being tolerant to "critical views and opinions". "Both ruling and opposition parties could together address the challenges that face the nation in our collective effort for social and economic development".

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, he said " entrenched positions should not be allowed to bring the nation into disrepute but rather to foster unity, love and to see how best the nation can move forward".

He said "the country's recent experience shows how beautiful democracy is and we should try not to let our sentiments to disturb our political aims by creating unnecessary tension".

Rev. Armah, urged opposition parties to continue to offer constructive advice to the government and to play their part in national development by displaying true nationalism.

He called on the media to crosscheck their facts and to publish "the truth and nothing but the truth" to maintain the peace Ghanaians are enjoying.

The General Overseer appealed to the people to exercise restraint especially during phone-in programmes on the electronic media and to use decent language, saying, "even though we are free to express our views on national issues, we should do that in a cultured manner". Rev. Armah said the greatest challenge facing Churches now was how to make the Gospel socially, politically and economically relevant to the people.

He asked Christians to stand firm in the face of moral decadence, social injustice and environmental degradation and criticized religious leaders who duped people under the pretext of praying for them to acquire visas and other fortunes.

"What ever we do as spiritual leaders would be accounted for on judgement day", he said.