Opinions of Thursday, 9 September 2010
Columnist: Donkor, Samuel
'RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALT A NATION'
-are Ghanaians righteous?
by Samuel Donkor
According to scriptures of all the religions of the World, it is written;
'Righteousness Exalt a Nation or Godliness Exalt a Nation.' Godliness, of
course, is Righteousness.
This scriptural quotation is true and a fact, that cannot be over emphasised
There are many practical examples in the past and present World to this.
By the way, what is righteousness, one may ask. Righteousness is the passion or
virtue of doing the right things at all times.Being virtuous, self-discipline,
law abiding and the tendency to Godliness.
By definition and practice, it is a people that make a nation.And therefore, it
the righteousness of the majority individual citizens that exalt a nation. A
nation with citizens that are unscrupulous, corrupt, lawless,carefree, cheats,
greedy and indiscipline can never be exalted. Such a nation heads for disaster.
In this country Ghana, renowned Pastors, Priests, religious leaders and social
commentators have regularly made references to this quotation in preaching. But
how serious has it gone down into the people, members of churches and other
religious organizations and applied to their lives and characters.How far has it
gone to influence their attitudes and behaviors in their way of life in the
society and the nation at large.
Inspite of the everyday preachings of these scriptures in the Churches, Mosques
and other religious organizations, the people are still in their sinful nature
and have never changed. The people are still unrighteous ,
indiscipline,carefree, cheats greedy and lawless. They still live in sin and
expect their Presidents and politicians to use magic wands to change their
economic woes and under developments overnight.
The gospel truth, and is a fact, that it is the righteousness of the majority
individual people of the western world, their virtue to the right things at all
times, their self- discipline, law abiding and scrupulousness and hard work that
has made their countries what they are today and which we always exalt and envy.
Ghanaians make regular references to the Tigers of Asia, in relation to their
advancement in development, even though both countries started off the same
time. But the fact of the matter and what Ghanaians forget to recognize is that,
the people and citizens of these countries are religiously disciplined, very
righteous, doing the right things at all times, law abiding,scrupulous,
respectful, God fearing, and hard working. They are a diligent religious
practitioners.
Today in Ghana, the average Ghanaian is unrighteous and lawless. There is
indiscipline all over the places. The civil servant, the public servant,the
trader, the school boy, the politician, the man of God, are all corrupt lawless,
indiscipline and dishonest one way or the other. With this character in society,
the country can never move forward. The time has come for Ghanaians to do the
right things at all times and get seriously born again in righteousness for
Ghana to be exalted once again.
Failure to get our moral values right, this country is bound to chaos.
The Ghanaian society is today without values and rotten. The society is morally
decayed and needs a complete overhaul in leadership direction, perception and
mindset.
The most immediate, visible and indisciplined group of people in the Ghanaian
society are the drivers on the streets and roads and the youth. Also, the most
visible corrupt people are the public and civil servants. This is a fact that
everyone knows and can never be denied in the continent of Africa, which is a
canker that is retarding the development of the countries within.
It is really sad to note that, many national leaders and power seekers, before
the republican system and after, have never and are still not learning from the
mistakes of their past peers.
Many Presidents and national leaders and for that matter, mostly African leaders
and politicians in the present political era are still not learning from the
demise and disasterious ends of their colleagues in
the past and present.
The sad and disasterious ends of leaders like Mobutu of Zaire, Abacha of
Nigeria, Idi Amin of Uganda, Eyadema of Togo, Mugabe of Zimbabwe,Bokasa of CAR,
Marcos of Philipines, Pinochet of Chile etc are a few examples of the seed of
unrighteousness they sowed.
For it is written; 'Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a Man
soweth, that shall he also reap.' Galatians6:7
And therefore, the economic crisis, social crisis, civil strife, under
developments and backwardness that many African countries are experiencing today
are all the seeds of unrighteousness , negativities and bad governance past and
present leaders have sown.
Samuel Donkor Mob: 0242 809352