Ghana needs peace - Ntumy

Accra, Jan 31, GNA - Apostle Dr. Michael Kwabena Ntumy, Chairman of the Church of Pentecost (COP) on Thursday launched the Church's year-long prayer programme for a peaceful Election 2008 and national stability.

The Church has set aside the last Friday of every month for special

prayers in all its 10,500 local branches countrywide which would be supervised by 38 Administrative Area Heads of the Church. Dr Ntumy asked political parties and voters to observe maximum restraint in the face of provocation and exercise their franchise in peace, come December 2008.

He said Ghanaians should be guided by the peace the country had enjoyed since the beginning of the fourth republic in 1992 and sustained economic growth to continue to uphold peace.

Dr Ntumy said there was also the need for government to also provide adequate funding and the necessary logistics to enable the Electoral Commission to carry out its civic functions without any hitch. Beyond 2008, Apostle Dr Ntumy said the oil discovery has warmed the country up for an industrial take-off with an assurance that Ghanaians would receive salaries to commensurate with labour. He commended Ghanaians for their unflinching support in the on-going 26th MTN African Cup of Nations and urged the citizenry to continue spurring the Stars on to victory.

He further called on all Christians of all denominations to also embark on serious prayers for Ghana.

Dr. Ntumy, turning to moral issues affecting the dignity of the nation said recent reports on alleged child prostitution should be an indication to all who kicked against Religious and Moral Education (RME) on the dangers of raising children without religion and morality. He said government should therefore reconsider its present stance and muster the political will to reintroduce the subject to stem moral decadence in the country.

He said the subject should therefore be introduced at the early child development level to have a transformed society that would produce honest, God fearing, hardworking and trustworthy youth. According to him, the present unacceptable level of moral decadence was a true reflection of a national psyche and direct product of refusal to apply principles for the benefit of children.

The COP Chairman said in an attempt to respect Universal Rights, parents have abandoned their children into a global market of ideas that have no regard for law, order, authority and decorum. "Unless we want to mortgage our future by allowing our youth to go waste morally, the government must take a decisive action to reverse he present negative situation", the Chairman added.

Apostle Dr Ntumy, who is also the Chairman of the Ghana Pentecostal Council, said the Church was against any form of "secular humanism" in schools and advised the youth to be mindful since even the developed countries they copied blindly do not have an antidote to such concept. He urged the media to set the national agenda and take the initiative to tone down the high sex contents of publications to erase the perception that they could be partly blamed for sexual pervasion in society.