Ghana requires God's hand, not political eloquence - Rev. Dr. Lawrence Tetteh

Monday, May 1 through Sunday, May 31, this year's National Prayer Rally will be held daily at the Christian Village Miracle Centre in Accra.

As a nondenominational prayer rally, it will be conducted annually to seek God's face in addressing the nation's rising corruption and other social ills.

The month-long event, which is scheduled from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and has the theme "Stop this nonsense," will bring together religious leaders and worshippers to intercede against things that threaten the economic, social, and political development of the nation.

Reverend Dr. Lawrence Tetteh, the rally's organizer and a renowned evangelist, stated at the beginning of this year's event that for the nation to surmount its current economic challenges, its political leaders must be humble enough to seek God's face and direction.

Consequently, he urged as many individuals as possible to participate in the month-long event.

Ignoring the presence of God

This, Reverend Tetteh stated, had become of the utmost importance because the nation had become polarized along partisan lines, with nearly everything, including matters of national importance, being politicized.

He stated that this had resulted in leaders and the rest of the nation unwittingly disregarding the God-factor in their discourse, which was negatively impacting the nation's prosperity and national agenda.

"As a people, we must pray to our God to seek His presence in a massive, unified front. A call to national repentance and prosperity, love, progress, and harmony. We need God's hand more than ever before as a nation, not eloquence and politics," he said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Change of attitudes

Rev. Tetteh stated that the nation needed to alter its perspective on political, traditional, media, socio-economic, and religious leaderships because the people's attitude toward building the socio-economic landscape and fostering development had deteriorated due to selfish desires and improper motivations.

"It is regrettable that our two largest political parties have not contributed to advancing our national agenda and succession plan for Ghana. "It is quite concerning that, just as the NDC did not continue NPP-led projects when it was in power, the NPP is now abandoning NDC-led projects," he bemoaned.

Reverend Tetteh urged political actors and the nation as a whole to be extremely circumspect in their vitriolic attacks on religious leadership based on the misdeeds of a few errant members of the religious community.

"I will strongly urge us all to refrain from such behavior and instead approach religious, political, and cultural discussions with decorum and maturity," he continued. "Remember that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom."

Constant supplication

Reverend Tetteh also exhorted the media to devote significantly more airtime to discussing issues related to the moral and ethical development of the youth in order to equip them with godly values and civic responsibilities for the betterment of the nation.

The convenor stated that the nation's uninterrupted peace, religious tolerance, and brotherly love should not be taken for granted, adding that it was only by the infinite grace of God that the country had been spared the chaos, famine, war, and diseases that were wiping out large populations in other nations.

"We must continue to pray continuously and seek God's visage in all of our deliberations. As God's Word exhorts, let us continue to pray for our nation and its leaders to be contrite and devout, he added.