CHRISTIANS MUST HELP TEMA REGAIN PAST GLORY (PAGE 29, MARCH 12, 2010)

The Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Robert Kempes Ofosuware, has appealed to Christians to help in the crusade to restore Tema’s past glory as a beautiful and well- planned industrial city.
He said the existing partnership between the church and the state must continue to grow and urged Christians to reflect on their attitudes with the view to correcting and improving on them.
The MCE made the call when he addressed a congregation of the Full Gospel Church International (FGCI) in Tema to mark ‘Ghana Day’; an innovative celebration by the church to highlight the virtues and values of the founders of the nation.
The celebration, themed ‘Nurturing and Optimising a Maintenance Culture for National Development’, was also to instil patriotism and loyalty in the citizenry through the active involvement of the church.
As part of the celebration, the premises of the church was decorated with the colours of the Ghana flag and the congregation sang patriotic songs.
Mr Ofosuware commended the leadership of the FGCI for being innovative and recognising the existing partnership between the church and State .
He observed that society had placed premium on riches than individual values and, therefore, materialism had taken a better part of the people.
Mr Ofosuware explained that this had made the fight against corruption difficult, noting that the nation must be shaped by the values of her people and not their riches .
He noted that the founders of Ghana preached unity, selflessness and patriotism and questioned whether after 53 years of independence, the nation was united.
Mr Ofosuware urged the congregation to preach the word of God, promote unity and protect the environment since cleanliness is next to Godliness.
Mr Ofosuware stated that the church should incorporate into their plans, days on which members would plant trees along the roads that lead to the church premises and gave the assurance that the ‘assembly would provide seedlings for the exercise’ whenever they were ready.
The President of FGCI Rt Revd Mensah, denounced the lack of maintenance culture, ineffective legal framework , and use of political power to shield wrongdoers, which had affected national development and added that we should not blame any external forces for the challenges facing the nation .
Rt Revd Mensah asked ‘how can the lack of basic necessities of life like regular flow of water, electricity, sanitation, hunger, shelter, protection of life and property be blamed on external forces?
He noted that the laws of the nation must be made to work regardless of the political party in power.
Rt Revd Mensah said the ‘give it to God’ mentality was killing society and appealed to Ghanaians to critically examine issues affecting the nation .
He called on the government to ensure that institutions like the Fire Service and Police Service were provided with adequate materials to enable them to work and protect life and property, adding that ‘development depends on good governance.