Senior Presidential Advisor Yaw Osafo Maafo lamented that corruption in the country is getting worse rather than better, which necessitates reflection on the part of the church and the government in order to identify workable solutions to lessen the scourge.
Yaw Osafo-Maafo questioned whether the Church had a positive moral influence on the 70% of Ghanaians who identify as Christians.
“If there is that much decay in our body politics,the Christian community has a role to play. 70% of the population is Christianity so what kind of message do we continuously give to that population of the country, what kind of moral lesson are we able to put through this huge percentage. If we are not able to do anything to make certain changes then Christianity itself has a problem in terms of making our words work.”
According to Yaw Osafo-Maafo, stakeholders, specifically the government and church, need to take a fresh approach to the graft menace.
“I think we need to go back and visit the drawing board to see what we should do as a Christian group to influence the behavior of the system. Is it that your moral lessons are now not effective? We should ask a few questions, if indeed 70% of us are Christians and corruption begins to go from bad to worse, what is really happening? We need to do some retrospection and, as a country, together with the government, take certain actions to redeem the nation from corruption.”
He said practical actions are required beyond admonishing corruption.
“We can’t allow to just talk about it and continue to talk about it and not do anything about it.”
He said this when addressing the 23rd General Meeting of Presbyterian Church of Ghana at Kwahu Abetifi in the Eastern Region on Saturday, August 19, 2023.
Yaw Osafo -Maafo said, the fight against the illegal mining menace which is another manifestation of corruption, has gone beyond the deployment of the army, rather requires moral resetting of the country.
“Look at what Galamsey is doing to the land. Should we allow the money a few people want to make to even destroy the places of water we need to drink? There are areas where we can’t even purify the water, and where you can, we are spending about three times what we used to spend to purify the water. How do we go that way and is this not happening in the direct eyes of our chiefs, don’t they give these lands for the galamsey, are they not connected, are we doing the galamsey outside or inside Ghana, if it is inside Ghana are people not seeing it going on “
“People see it, people condone because the beneficiaries are many and varied. The President who once said that he is putting his presidency on the line so what is happening .It is not something that you need the army to solve it is a moral problem and therefore Christianity comes in what morals are we teaching” Yaw Osafo Maafo said.