Bolgatanga — In the wake of several challenges confronting Ghana, the Upper Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana has come out clearly to state its position on how the institutions mandated to carry out certain functions should go about their duties, while individual Ghanaians also play their civil part.
According to the Church, as part of its prophetic and gate-keeping mandate, it sees the need to bring to the notice of the wider Ghanaian public, issues both within its locality and the country at large, which, when submitted to the workings of the Holy Spirit, would witness greater transformation for the greater good of the entire populace.
In a communiqué issued at the end of the 3rd Annual Presbytery Conference at Nalerigu in the Northern Region, and read at a news conference in Bolgatanga, the Chairman of the Upper Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rev. Esmond Wasau Nagba, stated that the Presbytery had observed with deep concern the current labour agitations in the country.
The Church was of the view that every worker had a set of expectations regarding fairness in remuneration.
However, the disagreement normally surrounds fairness or otherwise, the accuracy or otherwise, and certain times the delay, which often leads to eroded financial value.
Proceeding from the biblical stand point of Malachi 3:5 and 1 Timothy 5:18 he reechoed the need for the utilisation of labour to be met with a corresponding and appropriate recompense for work done and services rendered.
The Presbytery, therefore, urged the government, Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, and other stakeholders to demonstrate their willingness in ending this spate of labour unrest, through a demonstration of commitment to agreements and rulings arrived at various negotiations involving labour unions.
On the other hand, the Presbytery appealed to the labour unions not to resort to entrenched positions, but allow due process involving negotiations. It also reminded all parties that they were serving the supreme interest of the country.
On the power crisis, the Presbytery observed this had brought untold hardship to both domestic and industrial users who depend on power for productivity, profit and survival.
Thus, while commending the government for extension works at the Aboadze Thermal Plant to boost the power capacity, the Church also urged the government to refrain from misrepresentations of facts and realities surrounding the issues of the power crisis for political expediency.
The Church further insisted that the government find a lasting solution to the energy crisis in the country, while Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Volta River Authority (VRA) also bring more efficiency in their operations. To users of electricity, they should also cut down on wasteful usage and become power-conserving sensitive.
On the recent ministerial swapping by President John Mahama, the Church commended the President, as it saw it as a move to find solutions to the agitations, and defuse tensions surrounding appointments based on ethnic permutations.
Connecting this to the theme for this year’s Christian Home Week, which was “The Bible and National Cohesion”, the Church also believed this would galvanise the theme and forge national cohesion while reducing regional and ethnocentrically bias appointments.
Touching on the controversial Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), the Presbytery urged all key actors and beneficiaries to be sincere and ensure that the SADA’s initiative was de-politicized, and be allowed to be a pro-poor programme that was meant to lift the beneficiary regions from economic misery.
The communiqué also stated that while the Church acknowledges the government’s efforts at ensuring efficient management and the sustainability of the National Health Insurance Scheme by introducing the capitation system on a pilot basis, and also the intention of the introduction of a verification system to check over-billing of clients by the health providers, there was the need for the government to take seriously concerns raised by well-meaning Ghanaians, regarding the efficient management of the scheme.