Clearly, “the gods are not to be blame”. Like our ancestors, we make the gods and tell the fools to obey what our gods said.
If we tell you that our gods said no one must make any noise and we turn around to tell you that noise are permited, why must you have a problem with that? This is what we have done for hundreds of centuries.
If you dont know that our gods eat to give them colanut and goats, then you will never enjoy their favours. You political party activities will continue to be ban by our gods while those who feed our gods get away with murder.
If you understand why we define politics as the art of changing things by changing peoples behaviour, you will understand why the Ghanaian politicians hide behind the gods, while nothing ever change.
It was not a shock to the Ghanaian Republicans, when the Oguaa traditional council announced the lifting of ban on noise for NDC campain lunching in the Central Region. You can call the gods corrupt or unjust but be careful the vigilante of the gods are not present else they drag you before the council of the gods for “contempt”. You are warn!
Yes, the understanding is, the ban on noise making is an acient practice instructed by the gods of the land over its inhabitants. Everyone is expected to religiousely obey the gods’ order, enforceable by the chiefs who make up membership of the Oguaa traditional council.
Whatever the definition of noise means, the act of banning noise making in any part of Ghana by anybody than the state itself, is inconsistent with the Constitutional position on freedom of expression granted to all Ghanaians.
The strange beat is, when Ghanaians quarried why their fundamental right as granted by their consituation is being denied by some gods than the state itself, they were told the decision is by the old idols of the land who were there before the formation of the modern state or government of Ghana and are bigger than the state.
Thus all kind of public activities are only going to be according to the will of the gods, regardless to whether the Constitution granted such right or not. That means, our freedom as citizens of Ghana granted by the constitutionton, is conditional to the will of the gods and meaningless if the gods don’t allow it.
When we sing our national anthem, we say with pride “God bless our homeland Ghana.” If we are now hearing about Seventy-seven gods are on our land, in addition to thousands of other gods, actively controlling our destiny, how come we openly claim to be Christians or Muslims? Who are then the pagans that serve and worship these 77 plus gods?
What does that make you and I than frigging dirty pagans and liars? When shall we start being honest with ourselves? Who are we fooling than being mere cowards led by lairs? If we want to be pagan, we should be proud to come out and plainly let every one know that we are not just the dirty pigs of the modern day world but proud a’s well. No wonder the country is demn corrupt as lies is becoming our national character.
When people are one thing and claiming to be another, then corruption become dominant in their lives. By statistics, Ghanaians are predominantly Christmas, and very open about this. The Muslims are next in number to the Christians and they are also very clear about their belief.
The challenge is the pagans with a smaller number who worship these locally made gods.
If the Christian God is said to be somewhere in heaven but worship in earthly churches, then the number of the Christian population justify the large number of churches. This goes to the Muslims who worship in mosques that are growing all over Ghana.
The problem is paganism that is daily becoming unpopular and the pagans are even shy to confirm who they are. The fact is, they are free and protected by the same constitutionton that protect us, to freely practice their faith. Sad enough, these minority practice is hidding behind the misconception of tradition to deny the majority their right’s as enshrine in the constitution.
In a democratic setting, the setting of dominance is suppose to be according to the demographic composition of the population. Since the truth of the modern day Ghana is, the minority pagans enjoy the dominant authority meant for the majority under the guise of misinterpretation of tradition in Ghana, the will of the idols and their pagans overshadow the will of free Ghanaians.
How could the blind in the darkness of the past lead modern day people, if not because of the half baked educated Ghanaians whose greediness make them cowards that turn blind eye to the truth?
These non existing minority pagans decide how we live our lives, by claiming they are doing the bidding from their gods. Are we taking instructions from the gods of pagans when we are Christians and Muslems by our majority? How? Pagans?
Now they tell us when to make noise or not make noise. They tell us when to use our land and when not to. They tell us how much of what we make out of our land we have to eat and how much we give to their gods. Who is the fool here? Is this what the Christian “Redemption” and the Islamic “Salvation” mean to us?
Yes, we believe in the Freedom of worship and freedom of Association that include the right of the indigenous minority pagans to llive and let live. But we don’t believe in a freedom of a minority that thrumple upon the freedom guaranteed to us by the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.
Since the so called ban on noise making clearly conflicts with the principles of Freedom of Expression, no republican must sit down for our constitutional right to be hijack by barbarians. If all of us want to make noise, let it be so. If some of us want to make their noise, why not if the majority or the law is not openly against it.
The problem is when a very small minority are instructing everyone to be quite by the instructions of their institutionslised unpopular gods, then we have a constitutional issue here.
No one is denying this practice was the case when the majority of Ghanaians are openly pagans. Naturally majority had their way. Everyone was practically involved and believed in the then values of pagans. That was then when being a Christian or a Muslim were unpopular, with those of the new faith forming the minority. The pagans had their way in doing everything their gods wanted them to do with the population.
Time has dramatically change. Modernity is here. Ghanaians are no more interested in paganism by their majorty. Pagans or idols can no more own the people’s land. Paganism is no more fashionable. They are even exposing themselves as lairs, dishonest, fake and unpopular bribe collecting pagans. It is clearly uncivilized and undemocratic to continue this way.
The republicans have done it before when the state of Ghana needed them. We declared the nation a Republic!! The republicans with conscience, are rising to the occasion again. it’s time we all take a second look at our definition of Culture and Tradition to know if “paganism” is what culture and tradituon truely mean.
If democracy must work in Ghana for Ghanaians, we must be honest about all concerns that inhibit modernization.
No one is saying idols, shrines or idols worshippers should be attack and forcefully stop from freely worshipping their gods as they please. What we are saying is, they form just a negligible minority. They must not be telling Ghanaians what to do with their lives anymore.
It is wrong for us to officially accept paganism as a constitutional institution. If Christians and Muslim is not giving any preferential treatment and subject to the rules of our national parliament, why should the pagans be excluded? All freedom loving people must stand up againt this constitutional anomalies.
We must decide that we are no more going to be taking instruction from the pagans and their faked gods. Pagans must stop being our land owners. The state must own the land on behalf of all Ghanaians and not the pagans on behalf of their gods, while majority of our citizens are homeless
Kofi Ali Abdul-Yekin is the Chairman of ECOWAS Citizens Right Advocates (ECRA), founder: GPPP (Ghana Poor People Party) and the author of The Darker Side of Ghana.
Writer’s e-mail: kofialiabdul@yahoo.co.uk
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