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Opinions of Tuesday, 24 March 2020

Columnist: Davis Nii Amaa Ollennu

Pastors, herbalists and spiritualists are silent – The gods are silent?

The pandemic COVID-19 virus which has brought everything to halt in the whole world is something that is beating my mind and keeps giving us sleepless nights. As at the time of writing, the confirmed global cases are 334,981 with 14,652 deaths. Ghana has also recorded 27 cases with 2 deaths already and over 521 suspected cases yet to be identified. I keep asking myself whether we still have superpower nations and dominant forces in this world in the wake of this pandemic.

I woke up this morning and noticed something which I think every Ghanaian would also be thinking about. In the emergence of the COVID-19 every nation is battling to find a lasting solution to this evil virus which keeps destroying innocent souls across the globe. This virus has really shaken the whole world and one may wonder what would happen if God decides to wipe away all race through a virus spread.

For several years now, when one tunes in to radio stations and televisions it is always flooded with several adverts of pastors, herbalists, mallams, fetish priests and so on. The question I am forced to ask is that, are they still in this country? This is the time for them to test their potencies so they should come out and give us solutions to this pandemic.

We know how one herbal medicine is advertised as having the potency of curing many diseases and how some pastors also advertise how powerful they are and can heal all manner of sicknesses. All our airwaves are flooded with spiritualists who portray themselves to have all the powers in solving any problem and sickness in this world.

This is the time the whole world is looking up to them to come to our aid. It seems they have all gone silence over this issue. Are they really in existence or they have gone missing or perhaps have gone into quarantine like other citizens are doing now? I thought they will still be making noise on our airwaves with solutions and drugs to eliminate this deadly virus.

The National Media Commission (NMC), National Communications Authority (NCA) Ghana Standard Authority should as a matter of urgency use this opportunity to sanitize our airwaves.

They should be reminded that at the time their services were needed so much they were nowhere to be found. It is so strange that none of them have come out with any clue that would help eradicate this virus. Ghanaians are watching, Africans are watching and the whole world is watching them from afar.