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Opinions of Saturday, 20 February 2021

Columnist: Rockson Adofo

Do good in order not to question your conscience

The Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as you want to be treated The Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as you want to be treated

There is a saying by the Akans that goes, "Di asempa na wo amisa wo ti" This may roughly be translated into English as, "Do good in order not to question your conscience."

When you do good or tell the truth even in difficult situations, will you ever have the cause to worry about? Will you have to be looking over your shoulder to see if someone is around when doing good or telling the truth? No, l should think.

You will never have the occasion to interrogate your conscience when doing good or telling the truth. It is only when you indulge in wrongdoings and feed on lies that you will keep worrying and questioning yourself if you have been behaving responsibly or irresponsibly.

Mark Twain rightly summed it up in one statement, "If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything".

It is only when you lie about things that you have to keep pausing to remember what you said in an attempt to present something seemingly credible to the ears of your hearers.

If you are a politician or an appointed public service head, will you have to worry to the point of interrogating your conscience if you do the right things? No.

If you a traditional overlord who doesn't encroach upon your subjects' rights, reaping from where you have not sown, will you be insulted to subsequently lose sleep over your actions? No.

If you are a judge and decides cases brought before you on the merit of the facts, an abundance of credible, permissible, and acceptable evidence submitted to the court, you will have no worries about people accusing you of bias and injustice.

However, if you allow yourself to be induced by bribery and corruption, then you will be subjected to questioning your conscience all of the time.

So-called powerful traditional overlords who are visionless, crooks, and greedy, cease your deplorable actions and no one will have the cause to expose or ridicule you.

To conclude, you are advised to do good in order not to have needless sleepless nights to worry about and to question your conscience.