An Open Letter to the Clergy/Imam

OUR ARTIFICIAL SILENCE IS A TIME BOMB

Dear Revered Clergy & Imam

I bring you greetings from the Upper West Region in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. May Allah the most gracious, most compassionate and most merciful grant us an understanding heart.

I served Ghana as a Police Officer from 1993 until May 2019 when I voluntarily retired unblemished to get into politics. My love for the peace and security of this country can only be disputed by those whose paths never crossed mine in the last 25 years.

It's worthy to note that when the Bishop becomes the Bible, the Imam becomes the Qur'an and the Politician becomes the Law, the end of decency is insight. We will need to reflect on the words of Prophet Elijah in 1Kings 18:44; On the seventh time the servant reported: "There is a cloud as small as a man's hand rising from the sea." And Elijah replied, "Go and tell Ahab, Prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you." (Source: Berean Study Bible).

I voted for the first time in 1993 and have since never missed the opportunity to exercise my franchise even during my duty tour with the United Nations in 4 different International Peace Support Operations. I have seen the devastating effect of conflicts in countries I served with the last being Liberia from 2014-2016.

One Ghanaian Pastor who served in Liberia before the conflict recounted the very religious, peaceful and loving-nature of the Liberian people before the breakdown of law and order in a nagging conflict that brought the nation to its knees.

Dear Gatekeepers of Ghana, I pray you do not sleep on your job if you are not already snoring per the pervasive silence that has gripped the nation with many good and horrible things to talk about.

The hand-size cloud seen by Elijah's Servant was in existence but was clearer to him on the 7th time which attracted straight forward instructions from Prophet Elijah.

I have reviewed electoral violence in the 4th Republic and Ayawaso West Wuogon Bye-election violence can exactly be likened to that of the final emergence of a clear sign of imminent conflict rising from the Gulf of Guinea.

I am only an obedient servant and hope to be heard by a Clergy with the spirit that controlled Elijah. The cloud is thickening with some Government square pegs in round holes, frustration of the millions of young people without hope, the mess created by our attempt to fight illegal mining (galamsey), open thievery with impunity, rising levels of dishonesty all capped by the inflexible posture of an Electoral Commission.

The EC is attempting to throw away biodata of millions of Ghanaians and call the citizens to queue in the sun again for 43 days for the same data to be recaptured. This can be described as madness in a very charitable language. No 18-year-old person's finger impressions will change over the next 100 years. Why will the EC ask old voters to queue in the sun again? Let's not justify the claim that the black man is mentally inferior.

It's not for the servant to interpret the vision but what I saw with my professional eyes during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election could be the final sign awaiting a simple trigger.

Most revered men & women of God/Allah, many have been massacred in churches on the outbreak of conflict, many have been killed in conflict for sleeping on the job yet we call them martyrs and many who benefit from conflict continue to fund it behind the scene complicating all attempts to resolve it. Prevention as always is better than cure.

There are too many best practices available to us but our continuous denial of what is evident is only adding more oxygen to burning coal under a filled gas cylinder.

If I make sense in this open letter, let's allow the love we have for Ghana and our belief in God/Allah to help us chart a path towards lasting peace and security. We cannot have development in insecurity.

May God/Allah bless all of us and give us the spirit of honesty to rekindle true Ghanaians.

I'm humbled for the open opportunity. Remember, we have One Ghana bequeathed us. What will posterity say about us?

God/Allah reveals to redeem.

God/Allah bless you.

Shalom

Aslam Alekum