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Bible Society Ghana urges EC to consider opinions of other stakeholders in compilation of new register

The newly inducted General Secretary (GS) of the Bible Society of Ghana (BSG), Reverend Dr Enoch Aryee-Atta, has urged the Electoral Commission of Ghana to consider the opinions of other stakeholders in its decision to compile a new voters’ register.

Considering disagreement from a section of the general public including some political parties and civil society organisations, Dr Aryee-Atta was of the view that if the EC thought that the voters’ register was flawed, it should advance more convincing reasons to the stakeholders for a common ground.

Dr Aryee-Atta said this at the Prince of Peace Presbyterian Church here at Tema where he was inducted as the new General Secretary of the BSG.

To him, it was appropriate to dialogue with the stakeholders and once dialogue comes in, no party should take an entrenched position that could not be amended adding that, ” we go into a dialogue with the idea that once we jaw-jaw and talk about it and then we realised that this suggestion from the EC or other parties would help inure to the benefit of all Ghanaians, then we all embrace it and work at it.”

He noted however that, “if the EC was in the process of explaining and helping the people appreciate the need for a new voters’ register and it looked like it already had a preconceived idea, then you do not want progress in our country”.

He continued that the EC was supposed to be an arbiter and a complete nonpartisan state institution and thus must reflect in their speeches and choices of their words in order not to give any impressions or indication of bias.

He appealed to all political parties to remain united and work together for the common good of Ghanaians saying, “we can only work together to succeed; there was no one political party that had answers to all our problems”.

Taking over from Rev. Dr Erasmus Odonkor as the seventh GS, Rev. Dr Aryee-Atta pledged his readiness to embrace the task of rigorous evangelism and distribution of more Bibles at subsidised prices in translated local languages across the country to spread the good news.

The challenge however, had been membership of the society and mainly financial.

He said the BSG spent over GH3 million to tranlate the Bible into one local language.

He called on all Christians to register with only GH 20 and make voluntary annual, mid-year or quarterly contributions to support the work of the society.

Until his appointment as the GS, Dr Aryee-Atta was the Group Managing Director of Tobinco Group of Companies and Minister-In-Charge of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Ascension Congregation at Afienya.

Mrs Sally Aryee-Atta is her wife with whom he has three daughters.

The induction was done by Rev. Dr. Joyce Rosalind Aryee, the President of BSG. Present were executives and council members of the BSG and other high profile clergymen.

The BSG had translated the Bible into nine major Ghanaian languages with some recently revised while others are under translation.

It had also embarked on numerous projects including Ghana Study Bible Project, Good Samaritan project, Literacy Programmes, Youth Impact Project, and Open the Book Project, Next Generation Project among others across the country.

FROM KEN AFEDZI, TEMA

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