Tony Aidoo jabs Duncan-Williams

The spiritual solution proffered for the free-falling Ghanaian Cedi by Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, presiding Bishop of the Christian Action Faith Ministries (CAFM), Action Chapel, has received a flurry of intense criticisms from a cross-section of Ghanaians, including former head of Monitoring and Evaluation of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, Dr. Tony Aidoo.

Also criticising the Archbishop was Kwesi Pratt, Managing Editor of The Insight, with other Ministers of the Gospel disagreeing with the man of God.

Dr. Aidoo described Duncan Williams’ prescriptions of praying to revive the local currency’s devaluation against all major international currencies in his now famous ‘Let the Cedi rise’ proclamation as a ‘comic relief’.

“At best, it is a comic relief, but seriously, at worst it is a big problem for us because it goes to reinforce the attitude – the undevelopmental attitude of Ghanaians …You attribute everything that is positive to God and everything that is negative to the devil, so the two names become the most commercialized …And then you become vulnerable to the exploitation of the clergy,” Dr. Aidoo fumed during Joy FM’s breakfast show on Monday.

“…It is only lazy people who become excessively religious because they want to transfer their responsibilities to others to solve for them….So you will definitely accept Archbishop Duncan Williams that he is going to command the Cedi to come down. Is he going to command the people at Abossey Okai not to go to China and Japan to import the spare parts? How is he going to feed all those people? I don’t understand, what kind of attitude is this?”

On Sunday, Duncan-Williams charged all his church members to pray against the rapidly declining value of the Cedi.

He went ahead to issue an intense prayer thus: “…I hold up the Cedi with prayer and I command the Cedi to recover and I declare the Cedi will not fall. It will not fall any further. I command the Cedi to climb. I command the resurrection of the Cedi. I command and release a miracle for the economy,” he prayed.

“For us to change the economy, we need to cultivate a developmental culture; that’s the starting point,” Dr. Aidoo charged.

Economists are stunned at the rate at which the Ghanaian currency is depreciating against all the major currencies within a short spate of time. For instance, the US dollar, which sold at GH¢2.20 on the local foreign exchange market before Christmas last year, now sells at GH¢2.60. The British pound, which sold at GH¢3.00, now sells at GH¢4.20 and the euro and CFA are also selling at GH¢3.50 and GH¢4.80 respectively.

All the currencies recorded significant gains over the Cedi. Rather than blaming the runaway currency on possible less-than-optimal economic management, the Action Chapel head preacher attributed the situation to ‘Satan’ and also unleashed a spiritual attack against Satan, proclaiming in prayers: “In the name of Jesus, I say Satan take your hands off the President; take your hands off the Central Bank and the Finance Minister. We release innovation for the President, my God, the Governor of the Central Bank of Ghana…We command new ideas, breakthroughs and a miracle for the economy. Let the Cedi rise in Jesus’ name.”

In a similar criticism, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a close aide to the 2012 presidential candidate of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, described Archbishop Duncan-Williams’ prayers for the Cedi as ‘misdirected’. “Could any patriot close to Trassacco Village go and advise Bishop Duncan-Williams to go the direct route by praying for the NPP instead because this government can’t save the Cedi. It calls for competent managers of the economy”.

Pratt

Kwesi Pratt, in a sarcastic comment, said Ghanaians had to voluntarily appoint Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams as the next president of Ghana to enable him to “spiritually arrest” Ghana’s economic hardship.

Mr Pratt, speaking on the Badwam programme on Adom TV yesterday, said the nation’s economy was in crisis and would need the Archbishop to arrest the increases in petroleum prices and electricity tariffs.

Methodist Bishop

Peace Council Chairman, Reverend Prof Emmanuel Asante said there was the need to use proper scientific methods in tackling the economic challenges facing the country.

According to him, prayer was not the only panacea to solving the economic difficulties in the country.

He said on Radio XYZ that in as much as life should be seen in a holistic manner, “simply praying will not turn the economy around but it is prayer and action.”

Rev Asante noted that although there was nothing wrong with Archbishop Duncan-Williams’ prayer, there was the need for Christians to advise and preach against those elements that cause economic hardships in the country.

“Whatever it is, I believe as a reverend minister, he was concerned about the wellbeing of our economy and this is what he has proffered and what he put forward was to pray for God to do something about it. God is a prayer-answering God but that is not the only panacea to the problems that we have. We need to go further and the technocrats will do what they need to do and we will continue to pray for those who have the technical know-how to push our economy forward, but we believe that with God all things are possible,” he said.

Cedi Not Possessed

Spokesperson for the Concerned Clergy Association of Ghana, Bishop Prince Benny Wood, was not amused about Archbishop Duncan-Williams’ solution of spiritually resuscitating the falling Cedi.

According to Bishop Benny Wood, the Cedi was not possessed, and neither had it sinned to cause any spiritual deliverance.

Speaking on Sunyani-based Ark FM yesterday, Bishop Benny Wood however said the prayer should rather be directed to the managers of the economy for them to employ novel ways to revamp the economy in order to strengthen the local currency.

The Concerned Clergy Association spokesperson told the host of Ark In The Morning, Alhaji Tanko that “the Cedi has not committed any offence to warrant any spiritual deliverance from anybody.”

He mentioned that bad economic management had been the cause of Ghana’s woes, and that as the nation’s debt portfolio kept on rising and more dollars were exchanged to service the debts, the Cedi would continue to fall in value.

Bishop Benny Wood noted that Ghana, at this stage, needed an economic management team that would think outside the box and come out with innovative ideas to build a robust economy which would automatically strengthen the falling Cedi.