The Bishop of the Accra Diocese of the Methodist Church Ghana, Right Reverend Emmanuel Borlabi Bortey, has urged Ghanaians to avoid political campaigning based on religion or tribal affiliation in the coming elections.
“We should avoid politicking which divides the country along ethnic or religious lines,” he said.
The Bishop, who was speaking at the opening of the 62nd Annual Synod of the Accra Diocese of the Methodist Church Ghana, said the National Constitution frowns on and legislates against forming political parties on ethnic or religious grounds.
“So, we cannot form parties like Ga Shifimor Kpee or Dagbani or Akan Peoples Party. We cannot have a Christian or Islamic Peoples Party. Similarly, we should not be seen to be campaigning along ethnic or religious lines: asking people to vote for somebody because he belongs to my tribe or my church or religion,” he noted.
To Champion the cause of love and unity, Rev Bortey stated that, individuals must campaign free from insults and any provocative utterance that could ignite hostility among people.
He further called on Christians to participate in national politics as it was part of their social responsibility.
“The Christian and National Politics” educates us on whether Christians can get involved in party politics which is generally labeled to be a dirty game.
In a nutshell, if we leave politics to non-believers then we stand the risk of making it dirtier.
It is advisable that we get Involved to help clean it up by shining as the light of the world. If we do not get Christians in our Parliament, we are likely to get laws passed which may offend our Christian sensibilities,” he explained.
The 62nd Synod of the Accra Diocese was on the theme: “Discipleship: Growing into Christian Maturity (Ephesians 4:15) towards Implementation the Agenda for Revival, Transformation and Growth III.”
The Bishop, urged the government to expand the tax net to increase revenue by raking in income from the informal sector.
He noted that, the Ghana Revenue Authority needed to devise means to spread the tax net to ease the burden on the formal sector.
He called on the government not to relent in its efforts to industrialise the economy, adding that, “we must move on from a country whose export earnings depend on primary products, to manufactured or at least semi-processed products.”
“The government must pay serious attention to the drive to diversify our economy, to improve the quality of our exports to ensure higher earnings, it is the only way to go if our economy will ever become robust to ensure a better standard of living for our people,” he said.
To deal with the threats of galamsey, Rev Bortey said legislation should be put in place to make the local authorities and the chiefs in mining communities responsible for ensuring the arrest of illegal miners.
“The Municipal Chief Executives and Chiefs should be made responsible for watching over the environment and be held responsible for any illegal operations occurring in their territories,” he said
The Accra Diocese Bishop further urged the church to identify the skills of its members and implement skills training programmes to reduce the incidence of poverty in the church.
BY CECILIA LAGBA YADA
