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Opinions of Saturday, 25 July 2020

Columnist: Anthony Obeng Afrane

2020 elections could be chaotic, let's prevent it

Save our beautiful nation from plunging into a painful and avoidable civil unrest Save our beautiful nation from plunging into a painful and avoidable civil unrest

The last days are here! The Bible is right! The Scriptures say that in the last days, people will be boastful, proud, abusive and disobedient. It was, therefore, not a surprise to me when in a particular church, the entire congregation decided to display outright disrespect for authority.

In that church, promiscuity and drunkenness were rife among members especially the youth. The Senior Pastor during a Sunday church service preached: "If I had all the alomo bitters in the world, I'd take them and dump them into the river." And the congregation cried, "Amen!"

"And if I had all the biegya bitters in the world, I'd take them and throw them in the river." And the congregation cried, "Amen!"

"And if I had all the adonko bitters in the world, I'd take them all and hurl them in the river.” Again the congregation cried, "Amen!"

"And if I had all the akpeteshie in the world, I'd take them all and fling them in the river.” And the congregation gave a thunderous shout, "Amen!"

The preacher sat down, and a deacon then stood up and said:

"For our closing hymn, let's turn to page 126 of our hymn books and
sing, 'We shall drink from that river.'"

The congregation screamed Halleluyah eiii!!!

There is an Akan proverb which says that if you really want to have a glimpse of what death is, likened it to sleep. If just a registration exercise can attract gunshots and result in a loss of human life, then I can imagine what will happen on 7th December.

If these perpetrators would still want to go on the trajectory of unfathomable irresponsibility and appalling ignominy, some people would want to behave like the incorrigible congregation, and turn to page 126 of their hymn books and sing: “We shall drink from that river.”

It has been predicted that every aspiring MP is likely to have a vigilante group on Election Day which could give birth to over 500 vigilante groups if nothing is done about this disturbing trend. I, therefore, appeal to Religious leaders, Chiefs, Civil Society Organizations and well-meaning Ghanaians to intervene to save our beautiful nation from plunging into a painful and avoidable civil unrest.