Opinions of Wednesday, 7 March 2012

Columnist: Adjei-Gyamfi, Godwin

Ghana needs ‘politics of compassion’

Yes! I’m very excited as a devoted and practising Christian that Nana Akufo-Addo has accepted an invitation by Living Springs International Church (LSIC) to join them for a Ghana Independence Day service in the UK. My fellow Ghanaian Christians and I are very excited because by accepting the invitation, Nana Akufo-Addo is giving religion a greater role in public life and pushing back a wave of insult and intolerant secularisation which has crept in to Ghanaian politics in the last three years in our beloved nation under the current administration.

It is no secret that as a presidential candidate, president Mills slept with, woke up with, and walked with ‘politics of compassion’. But having won power by the slimmest of margin in the history of African democracy seems to have abandoned ‘politics of compassion’ in the closet. He now turns a blind eye to his ministers paying whopping sum of monies to individual without justification and to politics of insults. Under the current administration, the rich get richer and the poor are growing thinner and poorer.

Politicians need to bring back ‘politics of compassion’, where the unemployed, those living in hardship, the disabled members of our nation are given hands up and not hands down.

As my fellow Ghanaian Christians and I understand, Nana Akufo-Addo will use the service to encourage social harmony because Ghanaians, after three years of hardship need to feel strong again in their religious identities, have confidence in their believes and not dilute their faith by turning away from god and indulge in occultism in any shape or form and to be our brother’s keeper.

During the last NPP administration for example, the youth, the unemployed and the very poor had equitable access to NYEP, National Health Insurance, school feeding programme and free school uniform. These are few examples of ‘politics of compassion’, under the last administration.

I know Nana Akufo-Addo will also use the occasion to tell people of faith not to jettison their faith, have hope, be confident in our faith because it is only with faith we can move our country forward.

Bravo, Nana Akufo-Addo, bravo NPP.

Godwin Adjei-Gyamfi