Prof. Martey, where are the wisemen? – NDC lawyer jabs clergy

Edudzi Kudzo Tamakloe, a member of the legal team of the National Democratic Congress is mystified by what he observes to be the silence of ‘moral’ society on the economic crunch being experienced by the country.

Edudzi believes the clergy and respected members in the country must speak against current ongoings as he believes the crisis was largely a self-inflicted one by the Akufo-Addo administration.

He cited the continuous expenditure on the National Cathedral to back his view that the government has engaged in reckless expenditure.

The private legal practitioner says he shudders to understand why the economy which was flourishing in the last year of the Mahama administration has been dragged into a pit.

He singled out the former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Reverend Professor Emmanuel Martey for his silence, questioning why he no longer speaks on issues of national concern.

“Workers who are about to retire are expecting something on their savings. Then one morning a government, having recklessly mismanaged the economy comes out that interest due and payable will be frozen.

"I will freeze it because I’ve mismanaged the economy and can no longer pay my debt. In the days of Acheampong, it was ‘yentua’. This one is not yentua but this one is ‘yentumi ntua. We can’t pay because we are broke.

“How did Akufo-Addo pick an economy that has the capacity to allow him to borrow in excess of $ 11 billion dollars in Eurobonds alone? Additional $ 2.5 billion from Franklin Templeton. If you put together, that’s about $13billion. There are other loans. The economy was so robust to allow you to borrow but today you’ve run the economy so terribly down that you can’t do anything.

“The challenge I have is that moral society has become mute. With the greatest respect, where are the powerful voices? Respectfully, Professor Martey, where are the wise men?

"The NPP manifesto is the social contract between Ghanaians and the NPP and there is no cathedral. Where in the NPP manifesto did you see that they will be build National Cathedral?” he said.

Professor Martey was a strong critic of the Mahama government as he is on record to have spoken out repeatedly against it.

His silence under the Akufo-Addo government has not gone unnoticed but he disclosed in May 2022 that more recently, he prefers to communicate via text messages to those in authority.

Speaking at a Public lecture in Koforidua, Prof. Martey said he now uses text messages among other channels to speak to people on matters of national interest.

“Rev. Prof Martey is still speaking but has changed the style. Those I need to communicate with them I communicate. Sometimes through text messages and a lot of things have happened because of my intervention. So I’m still speaking”.

Very Rev. Prof. Martey explained that the constitution of the Presbyterian Church gives power only to serving moderators to speak on behalf of the church on national issues.

“You know the revelations, practice, and procedure of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana,the Spirit of our constitution is that the Presbyterian Church of Ghana has only one representative to speak on behalf of the church and that person is the moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana not past moderators but serving moderator.

“And for me, my understanding of leadership is that especially in the Church’s setting leadership is like a relay race when the baton is given to you [you don’t take it , it’s given to you] , you run as fast as you could and when you you get to the next person, you hand over the baton and stop running. If you hand over the baton and you continue running, anyone who does that is mad,” he said.

KPE