A Priest speaks Up - Ghana’s Debt Exchange Programme

In recent times, the government of the Republic of Ghana has been concerned about how he would service his foreign debts in what has become known as the ‘Debt Exchange Programme’. Tons of ink has been spilled and copious amounts of saliva have been secreted about this programme. In many cases, the government claims to have consulted stakeholders but on the flipside, it seems there has been little or no engagement with some people.

From the religious point of view, it is indicative that for most ‘victims’ this programme is a type of oppression. Being someone who prides himself as patriotic Ghanaian and a ‘prophet’ as I share in Jesus’s triple munera, specifically his prophetic office, I cannot keep quiet when people are being disadvantaged. As Ghanaians, our beautiful National Anthem ‘prays’ that God should help us fight oppressor’s rule. As people of faith, particularly Christians, our Lord and master Jesus in his programmatic statement in Luke 4:18-19 would say he had been anointed to set the oppressed free.

And so, any well-meaning Ghanaian who upholds the words of our National Anthem and the words of Jesus shouldn’t keep quiet when the vulnerable of our society are being ‘robbed’ in a broad daylight. God, through the Prophet

Ezekiel says “the people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and have extorted from the sojourner without justice….

So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD.” (Exe. 22: 29, 31). Religiously we ought to remember that oppressing the poor and needy comes at a cost. God who is a defender of the ‘anawim’ will not be silent and will make sure that the oppressors suffer.

Remember that you and I will as well suffer this retribution of God as this wrath will wreck our country for failing to defend the most vulnerable.

During their picketing, I have listened to most pensioners, and one would not be wrong to call them poor and needy. Most of them are sick and just need their investments to support their lives. Why can’t they enjoy their hard-earned money? Where from this arm-twisting system?

Mind you, it is their hard-earned money and the fruit of their own sweats. As the former Chief Justice, Madam Sophia Akuffo said in her interview with some media people, the taking of these monies from the pensioners and everybody else must be voluntary and given out of volition. And when this condition of free volition is taken away from the bond holders and investors especially the retired and aged, it becomes nothing than robbery and oppression.

As a country that touts itself as Christian or religious, I would wish all Christians and for that matter all religious people to stand up and speak. This speaking is our prophetic mandate, and we cannot stay aloof when the most vulnerable (older people) suffer. It is elder abuse and since we are a country that respects people’s rights, it should start from those who are at the

upper echelons of our society.

If Nana Addo is truly a human rights lawyer and someone who respects the constitutions of Ghana, somebody close to him must remind him that he and his

government are practicing elder abuse. Who will speak if you don’t? Kindly listen to Marty Haugen’s hymn “Who Will Speak?”