Men And Women of God Must Enter Politics........

To Save Ghana from the 'Grips' of Our Country's Politics by a Permanently Corrupted Political Elite.

By Otchere Darko


It has been argued by several members of various governments we have had in Ghana since independence that 'men and women of God', be they Christians or Muslims, who criticise governments in office must stay out of politics and, instead, concern themselves with their 'congregations'. This argument is as nonsensical as it is insincere and diabolical.

Jesus Christ who established the Christian faith was not only a teacher, an evangelist, a healer and a messiah; he was also a politician who never shied away from challenging the 'established order', whether it comprised of the church clergy or the political establishment. I guess Mohamed who established the Muslim religion was also a politician, in addition to being a religious leader.

I personally, and I guess there are several Ghanaians who, also, would like to see men and women of God to do more than what some of them are daring to do in Ghana today, and in other countries like United Kingdom, United States and the Vatican. Politics, many readers will agree with me, is about collective efforts to seek collective wellbeing of society. Churches and other religious faiths are also about seeking the same end. Both groups exist to help society and the communities within which they exist and operate. The roles of political and religious groupings are, thus, not only complementary, but are also inclusive of, as well as overlapping each other. Neither, in my opinion, can succeed in achieving its objectives without the coordination and cooperation of the other. Politicians and governments in Ghana and elsewhere must, therefore, stop using bullying and cowing tactics to silence men and women of God from criticising governments and actively participating in the politics of their countries.

I am of the view that men and women of God must do more than they have been doing as at now. I would advocate that they use the vast resources at their disposal, including the extensive moral authority they possess, to help them to form political parties of their own, with the aim of using the wide congregations they have to form the support bases of those parties, through whom they will get boosted and propelled into political office and power and be in positions where they can effectively tackle corruption and all political abuses.

I believe that men and women of God can pursue both political and religious goals in tandem, without the risk of compromising their religious faiths or their spirituality. In my opinion, if men and women of God don't pool their resources together and set up political parties of their own to fight corruption and rule Ghana with unqualified honesty, but rather continue to sit on the fence or merely continue to criticise the recalcitrant and incorrigible politicians in both NDC and NPP who have wielded political power in Ghana since the inception of the Fourth Republic, they (the men and women of God) would merely be throwing powerless weapons that lack both the momentum and the venom to do any damage to corruption, mismanagement and other forms of administrative impropriety that they vehemently preach and talk against in Ghana.

While agreeing with many critics, including Rawlings, that the current NDC administration is the most corrupt and the worst government Ghana has ever had since independence, that fact will not constitute a good reason for men and women of God to back, or be seen to be backing NPP or any other political party in Ghana, whose leaders cannot themselves be deemed to be worthy of unqualified trust. Political parties currently registered in Ghana have all, with the exception of one or two, been associated in the past with parties that have 'milked' and destroyed Ghana when they were in power. Churches and other religious groups must, therefore, take one more leap forward, of their own, towards tackling corruption in Ghana by themselves, by moving away from the margins of politics to diving into the political 'deeps', in the hope of being rewarded with an opportunity to become "fishers of men [and women]" in need of socio-political salvation in our corrupt Ghanaian political arena, in addition to their normal religious role of providing 'spiritual salvation' to members of their congregations seeking spiritual deliverance...... two human quests that need not be seen as contradicting with each other, as long as they are both pursued with clean motives.

However, before deciding to pool themselves together and form a number of competing political parties, or one joint political party, to challenge the corrupt political order of today's Ghana, Churches and other religious groups that intend to directly enter the political arena must first look within themselves and weed out the 'stinky ones' among them, who are 'robbing' their poor faithful congregations to enrich themselves and their cohorts through excessive monetary demands made on their church members....... a 'robbing of the poor' which is badly denting the collective image of religion in Ghana. While religious men and women, collectively, command stronger moral authority than our current politicians, and are therefore more likely to be seen to be capable of tackling corruption, mismanagement and naked abuse of political office, the few 'stinking men and women' in Ghanaian religious circles today are likely to force voters to ask the question: "are parties formed and sponsored by men and women of God going to eradicate, or even weaken the 'canker' that is destroying the country, given what some religious people are themselves doing in Ghana today?".

If they clear out the 'weeds among the corn', religious bodies can form political parties of their own that can easily sweep power from the current corrupt political elite. The time has come for men and women of God to stop merely criticising, and move into full political involvement. Enter politics, just us you have entered all spheres of human endeavour in Ghana, including the establishment and running of universities.