Make No Mistake, Informed Prayers Have Value

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

In recent days, the General Overseer of the Christian Action Faith Ministries (CAFM) has come under caustic public strafing for daring to pray for the prompt arrest and stability of the fast-plummeting Ghanaian monetary currency, the Cedi (See "Duncan-Williams' Prayer to Save Cedi is Comic Relief - Tony Aidoo" MyJoyOnline.com 2/3/14).

I don't know whether his critics would rather have Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams pray for the summary and immediate destruction of the Mahama government and the nation at large. Of course, it is perfectly accurate for any critic to suggest that the rapid depreciation of the Cedi, against all the other major currencies traded on the global market, is primarily the result of the abysmally poor management of our national economy.

Still, it would be equally remiss, or even inexcusably absurd, for any of Archbishop Duncan-Williams' critics to suggest that the role of the spiritual and divine has absolutely no place, or moment, whatsoever, in the affairs of a predominantly Christian country like Fourth-Republican Ghana. Even the most genius of physicists would tell you that cosmic geography is not wholly materialist in texture. In other words, the unknown and unseen world is of far greater expanse and dimension than the world whose existence is primarily determined by our five known biological senses of smell, feeling, touch, hearing and sight.

About the only shortcoming, or judgmental blight, that I find with the attempt by CAFM's general overseer is that Archbishop Duncan-Williams ought to have been bold and honest enough to have also castigated the gross incompetence of the Mahama-led government of the so-called National Democratic Congress (NDC).

In all likelihood, had he done the preceding, Mahama pit-bulls like Messrs. Solomon Nkansah and Kwadwo Twum-Boafo would have gone ballistic after the prelate and even demanded the head of Archbishop Duncan-Williams on a gold-gilt platter. After all did we not just witness, to our utter disgust and horror, what these two young upstarts did to the Methodist Church of Ghana's prelate of Obuasi, Bishop Bosomtwi-Ayensu just the other day, when the latter all-too-acutely, and astutely, suggested that President John Dramani Mahama's performance as Ghana's chief administrator left much to be desired?

This, of course, is not to suggest, in any way whatsoever, that Archbishop Duncan-Williams could not have first consulted with some of the expert economists among the membership of his own teeming congregation, and even elsewhere around the country, before prayerfully presuming to stabilize our fast-plummeting Cedi.

What I hope the CAFM prelate could do for me presently, though, would be for Archbishop Duncan-Williams to pray for the eternal repose of the soul of my eldest maternal aunt, Pastor Mary Baaduaa Sintim (1924-2014), a pioneering graduate of Fine Art of the erstwhile Kumasi College of Technology, presently renamed the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

My aunt Mary and the legendary Mr. Kofi Antubam were classmates and fast friends. She would, of course, be sorely missed by all who knew her and had the privilege and opportunity of associating with her in various ways. A painter and ceramicist by training, and a remarkable educator by profession, My aunt, Mary Sintim, was also one of the first Ghanaian women to learn to drive a 7-ton commercial vehicle.

Anyway, Dr. Tony Aidoo needs to further explain what he means by the following quotes attributed to him: "For us to change the economy, we need to cultivate a [development-oriented] culture; that is the starting point...," and, "In any society which has execessive religiosity, you attribute everything that is positive to God, and everything that is negative to the devil; and then you become vulnerable to the [unethical and wanton] exploitation of the clergy."

In sum, as the president's policy monitor and evaluator, what specifically can Dr. Aidoo boast of, vis-a-vis the impact of his work, that has caused the government to initiate and/or implement programs that have remarkably contributed to the salutary development of the country to warrant his imperious disdain for Archbishop Duncan-Williams' "prayerful approach" to the country's economy?

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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Department of English

Nassau Community College of SUNY

Garden City, New York

Feb. 3, 2014

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

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