By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The Ghana Baptist Convention has cautioned the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS to tread cautiously in its attempt to restore political sanity in Niger in the face of the takeover by the military of the governance of that country.
According to the Baptist Convention, even though the perennial deprivation and underdevelopment of Africa has been and still being orchestrated by external political influence in view of the huge natural resources endowment of the continent, any use of force to reinstate the over thrown government in Niger could be disastrous for the entire west African sub region hence ECOWAS must be careful of its strategies.
The Executive President of the Convention, Reverend Enoch Nii Naah Thompson, gave the caution at Ejura in the Ashanti region in a media interaction on the fringes of the 60th annual Session of the Ghana Baptist Convention.
“The situation in Niger spells a serious complication the whole of the continent especially, with the interest of foreign powers because of the natural resources God has given to us as Africans. So the church of God is concerned about this and we will pray amd hope that our political leaders who have the power to make decisions will make the right decisions so that they don’t complicate the situation and bloodshed and deaths unnecessarily”, the Executive President cautioned.
A Consultant of the National Educational Leadership Institute, Rev. Dr. Charles Yeboah, who is also the Director of International Community Schools in Ghana, noted that leaders in Ghana in particular and Africa have proven Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah wrong when he claimed that ‘the Black man is capable of managing his own affairs’ when he declared Ghana politically independent by the poor quality of leadership they have been providing to the people.
The Baptist Church in Ghana gained autonomy from the Baptist Church in Nigeria in 1963 to manage its own affairs and has since transitioned from Ghana Baptist Conference to the current Ghana Baptist Convention.
Within the 60-year period as self-governed, the Ghana Baptist Convention has seen substantial growth in almost all its operations. It now has a total of one thousand, 374 semi-autonomous Congregations with thousands of individual members across the country.
As part of its contribution to the state, the Baptist Church operates eight hospitals, has formal educational institutions from primary to the Ghana Baptist University College and other social amenities for the advancement of humanity.
These and other achievements caused the Convention to commemorate how far the Baptist Church has come in Ghana so far with a four-day Session at the Ejura in the Ashanti region to reflect on the current state of the Convention and plan for the ensuing years.
The Session, which is composed by delegates of Reverend Ministers of the Church from across Ghana is on the theme: “Faithful Stewardship for Kingdom Expansion”.
There were fraternal messages by some other denominations including the Methodist Church, Church of Pentecost and Assemblies of God Ghana as well as some para church organizations such as the Scripture Union Ghana, SU, Ghana Bible Society and the Ghana Baptist University College.
Rev. Nii Naah Thompson used the occasion to plant a tree at the Baptist Retreat Centre at Ejura to officially launch the Ghana Baptist Convention’s project to plant 100 thousand trees at the premises of all Baptist facilities across the country.
This initiative is in support the government’s Green Ghana Programme to reduce carbon emission in the country.
