By Bernard Asubonteng

No doubt, several “end-times” fake prophets in Ghana today insisting their prophecies come directly from God are subjecting the country to international ridicule. The self-anointed prophets parading as true messengers of God are nothing more than religious con artists, who have self-taught themselves about the rudiments of behavioral psychology.

For some reasons, these spiritual hustlers have adeptly learned how to play on many Ghanaians’ economic, political, and spiritual insecurities. As a result, some of these so called prophets have become experts in the exploitation of the vulnerabilities of the people who solemnly believe in them.

Hardly a day passes by that Ghanaians will not wake up to hear or see self-appointed prophets entering into what seems to be prophetic trance, supposedly directed by God. Contemporary Ghana is a flatland of mushrooming of churches and other spiritual havens. Any place of worship or church is not a bad thing in itself.

More so, the expression of and the concept of religion or spirituality serve as a vehicle by which humans use to fully embrace the essence of their existence. In fact, humans’ insatiable quest to understand the purpose and meaning of life, as well as the efforts to understand themselves, others, and the world as a whole, including what constitutes absolute truth, are all done via spirituality.

However, the distressing but comical development is when some people slyly arrogate to themselves positions or higher spiritual callings that do not have genuine moral groundings. As explained in one of the previous articles, Ghana is now “over-spiritualized” to the extent that any apostate can wake up in the morning, pretends to be speaking in tongues and also claims to be in the state of prophesy.

This is not to say that there are not many well-intentioned Ghanaian preachers, pastors, and other spiritual leaders who have selflessly devoted themselves to lead their followers in the service of the Most High—the Creator.

What is sickeningly laughable in Ghana today is the phenomena of Johnny-come-lately spiritual aristocrats living comfortably off, of the fears and socioeconomic uncertainties of the gullible Ghanaians.

These prosperity and fear mongering preacher-prophets operate on the fringes of simple human psychology and a little bit of the law of probability. In our society in which socioeconomic upward mobility is almost non-existent; and the majority of the citizens have limited job opportunities and bleak future; naturally, some human parasites can easily pose as “messengers of God” and take advantage of the people’s hopelessness and anxieties.

Clearly, the present-day prophets and the “angels-in-human-forms” are having a field day in Ghana. It’s not surprising that in this beautiful and natural resource-filled but superstitious country like ours, instead of finding practical solutions to the mounting problems, we timidly opt for metaphysical approaches.

But some of us have come a long way to sheepishly fall victim to the wiles of those spiritual pretenders, posing as if they have direct phone line to God. To stay relevant, these spiritual imposters in Ghana always strive to reinforce the predominant belief in superstition among many people so they can keep making money at their unsuspecting victims’ expense. This explains why almost every unfamiliar phenomenon that befalls anyone today is given superstitious label.

On December 6, 2016, at about 11:45 p.m. Atlanta Time, I was watching an ABC-TV late-night comedy Show hosted live by Jimmy Kimmel. The host presented a mocking video on the TV screen showing Pastor Obinim putting his hands on the genital areas of the men gathered at his church and without shame, he placed his “angelic hands” in that part of the body with the implication that whatever ailment affecting that individual would disappear.

This behavior is not only creepy and sexually provocative but also it makes Ghana looks like primordial nation full of non-serious daydreamers.

In short, the charlatans in Ghana who are boasting of having supernatural healing powers and access to heavenly revelations about other Ghanaians’ lives are only engaging in lies and blasphemy. It is hilariously funny to hear from some self-imposed pastors in Ghana currently going from place to place beating their chests that they prophesized long time ago about Nana Akufo Addo and his party’s victory in the December 7 elections.

The “prophesy” even if it occurred, has nothing to do with Nana Addo’s killer victory. Rather, the victory has a lot to do with the president-elect’s determination, persistency, grassroots organization, appealing campaign messaging, and the fact that majority of Ghanaians were stomach sick and tired of the Mahama-led NDC’s misrule.

Critically looking at all the economic indicators and other national development metrics leading to the general elections, Nana Akufo Addo’s victory and President Mahama’s defeat respectively, were inevitable. So, many of us do not believe it should take any “divine soothsayer” in Ghana to predict or prophesize about the recently held elections going in Nana Addo’s favor.

By the same token, the claim by a sham pastor/prophet named Kwabena Owusu-Adjei of the Hezekiah Apostolic Ministry, that Nana Akufo Addo’s 2016 electoral success was realized because of some ritual sacrifice of the former MP for Akyem-Abuakwa North, the late Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, was absurd and replete with lies, to say the least.

It’s time for Ghanaians to move pass these decadent thoughts and pursue common sense solutions to the challenges facing them; that is the only way the people can keep these fake prophets and “angels” out of their lucrative, spiritual-industrial complex enterprise all over the place.

The writer can be reached at: b.asubonteng@gmail.com.