Religion, Tribalism And Politicsts Any Way Forward?

Has this beautiful nation Ghana come a long way to do away with attitudes which I will called the idiotic syndrome of soiling this two preserved gift from God-RELIGION AND TRIBE with dirty water of politics?whether yes or no, the test is before you-wake up and contributes your positive efforts now. As long as one is called a living being, you cannot dodge the above mentioned membership. The Encarta dictionary defines religion as {beliefs and worship} and that of tribalism as {the customs, beliefs and social organization of a tribe or social group]but what has it said about POLITICS-activities associated with government. Joining politics is born out of one wish. One can boast of not been a politician but will be ashamed if he/she is not associated with a particular tribe or religion.

Before politics, the above mentioned membership was in existence. Everybody borne in to a family is first taught the sense of the two before any other thing. It is sometimes very sour to see or hear peoples going to the extent of shamefully hiding under tribe and religion to engage in dirty politics. These enemies of life use our tribe and religion for their dirty gains forgetting that tribalism and religion existed before them. It is very unfortunate that an individual’s tribe and religion is always asked before he or she joins a party. This is not just only shameful but also stupidity. In fact is it baloney. I think all parties should come out and condemn it.

It is still fresh in my mind when a senior colleague of mine narrated to me what discouraged him from realizing his ambition of becoming a propaganda secretary of his party in one of the constituencies in the Ashanti region some time back. “Most of them told me that am a ‘pepeni’ and that alone discouraged me and I subsequently withdrew from the contest”. Who told you that KWAME cannot become an M P in TAMALE-it is a very BABARIC taught. Please erase it. This will sent us nowhere.

Did I hear that some constituencies are declared as ‘no go areas’ for some parties based on the fact that that party is perceived to be associated with one religion or tribe? Hmm-it is time for us to grow-not just growing, but to mature. Are the occupants of these constituencies happy for this useless legacy? We live to see. Did I hear that someone has just shamefully quit his church membership on political grounds? This is really stupid. He must come again. What legacy is he leaving behind? I think he needs prayers. Please don’t allow POLITICS to lead you as stray. Respect your tribe and religion before that of your political colour.

Our imams, pastors, as well as traditional leaders should get up. Do not allow politics to destroy our tribal and religious pride. But as we also want it to be protected, we should not hide under them to foment trouble-the nation has witnessed both tribal and religious conflicts-is a shame and am therefore not ready to talk about it. This is the time for all to do what it takes to protect our tribes and religion from been destroyed by these greedy politicians.

I wish mother Ghana a peaceful polls come December –I know that is also your wish. May ALLAH ANSWER OUR PRAYERS-AMEN.

INSHA ALLA, I WILL BE BACK WITH “WHY DO I VOTE”.

HARUNA SUMAILA ABUGRI. 0247244879.

Writer’s email-abugrisumailaharuna@yahoo.com