Nothing Will Change If You Do Not Change It.

It has been a difficult time and a complete sleepless nights to many of us when we continue to read and hear from both churches and the mosques and the ordinary man on the street, as well as the media, throw into open debate and discussions, that the country stands to witness violence and other civil unrest after the supreme Court verdict on the election petition case now nearing its end at the supreme court.

Many are asking for the Almighty God to intervene to avert any possible violence or clashes that can take place should the verdict goes in the wrong direction of any of the two opposing parties. What beats my mind and my humble imagination is the very people who are called men and women of God of their prophetic massages on this national issue.

Our national papers and other media houses around the country reports, daily comes to point out that we the good people of Ghana as a nation are on a cross road to destruction in the form of violence that can visit us after the verdict if we do not fast and pray . Many Churches as well as many nongovernmental organisations including our men and women on the political scene are organising special church sermons with all night prayers and fasting, debates on our media houses on what people think of the issue, conference hall in around the country been turn into lecture halls for people who matter on these issues to tell the masses of this country what they think about this election petition before the supreme court.

Our chiefs in and around the country, being it divisional or paramount as well as the National house of Chiefs are not left in this craze that has befallen the nation making the poor more poorer and grinding most our national activities that promotes our economy almost to a halt and thereby disturbs our well-being as a people.

Most frightening and disturbing of these issues are the pronouncement of the big wigs of both the two leading political parties in the country. The very government being part of the case at stake is also not helpful by their pronouncement as well. Many have already made their judgement and insist that their side of this case in court as the truth and the best option on the bases of what they believe as a mountain of evidence they have unearthed. To this end even the ordinary farmer and our people in our rural areas have stop all forms of either farming or their daily activities in wait of the outcome of the court verdict. The market women, the hawker on the street, the school child, those in the higher schools and of our universities are all on it.

The worst people on this issue are Ghanaian living outside the country popularly known as the Diaspora. With little information or information gathered through the media, phone calls with relatives back home has already made their minds on this case as if they are the part of the judges .

The above scenario has given birth to a group of people who have vowed not to take No for an answer from the two main political parties thus the NDC and the NPP. This is the sad side of the issue at hand.

There is therefore the need to broaden our understanding of the way in which we handle such national issues and allow our so called democracy to run its course. Diversity of thoughts, of who we are and of what tribe we come from as well as our individual political believes, must therefore be strength and not a weakness of our so called democracy.

To the men and women of God of our nation, this is the time to develop the prayer and the spiritual well-being of the gathered and the disparate communities that goes to them to discover deeper meaning of their lives. It is now the time to find ways to reduce poverty and to bring some sort of joy into the lives of the members of their respective ministries as well as the wider communities around them.

They must accept that the spiritual and religious burden of the nation hang around their necks and should not be taken lightly. They must confront the nation as a whole being it the government of the day or the wider communities on the question of the moral code of the nation. They must also try to keep their prophesies to themselves in as much as not to scare the populace, for whatever they do or say have a direct influence on their members first and the general population.

To the school child, those of the lower and the higher colleges as well as those of our universities, they must express and enable their thoughts and actions to focus on their education and to ask themselves on what they can individually do to help the country they can at any time become leaders.

To the young unemployed or employed, it’s now time to upgrade yourselves and seek for new heights in your daily lives. Do not listen and give yourselves up to some unscrupulous politicians who will not want the system to change because of their selfish greed.

To the market women, the hawkers on the street and to all service personals, the time has come for all of us to turn a new leaf of whatever we do to enhance our individual lives and to create an environment that promotes peace and harmony and the love for one another irrespective of our political standing.

And to my brothers and sisters in the Diaspora, think of Ghana as the only country you have and will go back to. Think deeply of what you can do in your own small way to help develop your country. Are you a doctor, a nurse, an engineer, of any other profession? Think of how you can impart what you have learnt or seen in your respective countries of abode towards the development of our dear country Ghana.

Do not let us deceive ourselves, no change of government either today or tomorrow can bring a change to benefit the suffering masses if the strong institutions that brings in the checks and the balances and act as the shock absorbers to our development are not put in place. No Government of today or tomorrow can ease our suffering if we are to remain as we are, for if we continue to do what we know best every day of our lives, we will continue to remain as we are forever. Therefore let peace and one love prevail as we wait for the final ruling of the election petition and learn from it.

God bless our country Ghana and all her people.

Charles Antubam Ben- Cofie.

London