CHRISTIANS all over the world last Tuesday commemorated the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ with church services and crusades. Ghanaians were no exception, as they filled church auditoriums and crusade grounds in their numbers to thank God for His mercies and abundant grace.
Through it all, one common message that came from all our leaders — either temporal or religious — was that we, as a people, should deeply reflect on the opportunity that the peace, goodwill and new life the birth of Jesus Christ offered mankind.
Indeed, it must dawn on all of us that Christmas offers us the unique opportunity to be at peace with one another, forgive one another of any wrongs that might have been committed and be ready to chart a completely new course in the years ahead.
We are convinced that the mark of every human being is his or her capacity to differentiate the good from the bad and the readiness to ask for forgiveness. This is clearly underscored in many of the teachings in the Word of God. The idea is that if we have goodwill towards one another, we can all have peace.
Next year is an election year and we know that every electioneering comes with euphoria, emotion, passion and the use of intemperate language — even though society, at large, has raised objections over such uncouth behaviour on the part of some of our politicians.
But, this time, we counsel that as the moment dawns, our politicians will not get carried away by the frenzied atmosphere created by the mammoth crowds that will throng their rallies. We hope they will be able to maintain their cool and level-headedness and raise the issues that are necessary to change the fortunes of this country.
We are glad that the personalities elected by the various political parties as flag bearers so far represent the cream and the finest gentlemen of our time and hope that they will bring moderate dispositions to bear on the body politic so that the protagonists can disagree on issues and the way forward, without necessarily being disagreeable.
It is in this spirit that the Daily Graphic humbly calls on Mr Asiedu-Nketia, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), to withdraw certain allegations he made about the 17 aspirants of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at a rally held near the Arts Centre to climax the recent ‘Yewuo-o-o Demonstration’. We are sad that Mr Asiedu- Nketia had ignored earlier calls to do so and rather had the entire party rallying behind him.
The Daily Graphic would not like to go into the merits and demerits of that statement, which we even find very difficult to reproduce here, but suffice it to say that it is very damaging and completely out of tune with the mood of the season, which is peace and goodwill towards men.
Ghana is bigger than any individual or group of people and we cannot allow the destiny of our dear country to be toyed with for the sake of political expediency. By all means let us raise the issues, let us state the facts, so that all Ghanaians, irrespective of their race, colour or religion, will be in a position to make informed decisions.
That is the only way to move this country forward. Any attempt to cut corners or pollute the atmosphere with lies and untruths will produce unpalatable results for all of us in the long run.
We have made some strides in our democratic governance and we must do everything to protect those humble gains. Forward ever, backward never!
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