Rt Rev Prof Emmanuel Martey
The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rt Rev Prof Emmanuel Martey says the country is fast sinking in poverty and gradually losing its impressive past glory.
Rev Martey said the citizenry were living in a state of hopelessness and called for God’s intervention.
He emphasized that apart from the country’s economy, other facets of the society including moral uprightness, had been affected.
Though the moderator did not attribute the development to the Mills administration, he wondered why GH¢1, which was equivalent to one dollar, had depreciated so fast.
Stating that one dollar was almost equivalent to GH¢2 currently, Rev Martey wondered why the cedi depreciated by about 300 percent in 1999 and almost 50 percent under the current regime headed by the renowned tax law professor.
He expressed utter shock at the fast depreciation of the cedi against the dollar, adding, “I don’t think that even in Nigeria where corruption presumably is rampant, a dollar would be equivalent to two naira,” the leader of the Presbyterian Church in Ghana noted at a church service in Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital on Sunday.
He was delivering a sermon entitled, “The time is fulfilled so repent and believe” to mark the elevation of the Tek branch of the Church from a sub-district to a full district at a service held at the auditorium of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
Rt. Rev Martey emphasized that prayers by the faithful in the country were doing the magic in exposing gargantuan crimes committed by people.
The moderator revealed that more gargantuan crimes committed by persons against the state would be exposed in the coming days and that such people would never go unpunished.
He could not fathom why the state could pay huge sums of monies to persons and institutions as judgment debts when millions of people go to bed hungry whereas others pass the night in the open.
Rt Rev Martey charged the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of parliament not to restrict their work to judgment debts captured in the auditor general’s report of 2010 and 2011 but go as far back as 1992.
The moderator was of the conviction that should such the exercise be conducted in a transparent manner more gargantuan crimes in the form of payment of judgment debts to persons and institutions would be exposed.
“I am challenging our parliamentarians to be wide awake and do the nation a favour by investigating judgment debts paid by the state to persons and individuals at least for the past 20 years and more gargantuan crimes would be exposed,” Rt Rev Martey reiterated.
He indicated that the time has come for parliamentarians, the judiciary, clergy and all persons in the country to resist the perpetuation of corrupt practices by officials in government against the state.
The moderator emphasized that the favour of God was on Ghana, hence the absence of disasters in the country.
He noted that though Christians in the country would continue to pray to God for his divine protection, it was the duty of authorities charged with governance of the state to show commitment and love for the country.
Rt. Rev Martey entreated Christians to lead exemplary lives, stressing that the church was not fortified to combat corruption.
“Your time of fulfillment is here, repent and believe because Jesus Christ has opened his arms ready to receive you and give you unblemished peace and everlasting love,” the moderator told the congregation.
From Morgan Owusu, Kumasi